Jacks Marcy His Enemy Lover

The Vampire District 1

His Enemy Lover

The humans are tired of living in fear of the vampires. Hawke

West, a skilled assassin, is sent on a mission to kidnap any
important member of a rich vampire house in the hopes of finally

starting an open war instead of allowing the vampires to pick them
off. The problem is that the vampire he kidnaps is the very one

who freed him from slavery as a child, and now he finds himself
not only protecting him from his vampire-hating village, but also
falling for him.

William Delany was running from an arranged marriage when
Hawke came back into his life. Though their former relationship

was of a master and servant, they were still children together, and
he hasn't forgotten the man, and Hawke has become very

handsome indeed. Now, Will's only concern is whether he should
escape or stay with Hawke where his future, and the length of his

life, will be uncertain.

Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Paranormal,
Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 36,820 words

HIS ENEMY LOVER

The Vampire District 1

Marcy Jacks

EVERLASTING CLASSIC

MANLOVE

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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Everlasting Classic ManLove

HIS ENEMY LOVER
Copyright © 2013 by Marcy Jacks
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-547-1

First E-book Publication: March 2013

Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

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HIS ENEMY LOVER

The Vampire District 1

MARCY JACKS

Chapter One

Hawke West kept to the trees. It was easier to get around that way,

even in the dark, and easier to see the cameras before they saw him.

Very few vampires bothered with putting cameras into the trees,

just to point them at the branches. They tended to get pointed
downward at the paths leading to the mansion, but still, if Hawke
were to land on a heavy tree branch, his weight would be enough to
cause it to shake, which the camera would see. That couldn’t always
be blamed on the wind or a squirrel.

He avoided another branch with a camera attached to it. The tiny

light by the lens was flashing red, telling Hawke that it was indeed
active, and that he needed to avoid it.

It had been years since he’d been back on the property of this

particular vampire family, and in thirteen years, enough had changed,
more trees either chopped down or sprouting new branches, that he
couldn’t exactly find his way if he were to close his eyes, despite
what the clan leader had said.

He had a simple mission, to get in the same way he’d gotten out,

find himself a hostage, and the more important, the better, and then
get out.

The humans of the West End finally wanted to make a stand, and

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considering Hawke used to be a slave to the people he was going to
attack, and a fairly decent assassin, he was the perfect candidate to go
in there and find someone.

The property was enormous. Fucking rich, evil vampires and their

vanity. So even though Hawke was still dodging branches with
cameras, and was more than confident that he’d be able to get back
off the property with another person unnoticed, he hardly expected to
see someone beneath him, running like their life depended on it, in the
opposite direction of the mansion.

He watched the guy sprinting away, bag over his shoulder, with a

curious brow raised.

Definitely not a slave, unless that bag was filled with stolen

goods. It could be another vampire of the house, but what would
cause him to run away like that?

He could see none of the man’s features aside from the top of his

blond head of hair, and he was just about to turn around and follow
him when three more vampires, guards from the look of their suits
and sunglasses, chased behind the man.

“My lord! Come back!” one of the men shouted.
A flash of inspiration went off in Hawke’s mind. My lord? He was

a member of the family? That was too perfect. Normally Hawke
wasn’t a fan of things that were a little too easy like that, but in this
case, he couldn’t help himself. He kept to the tree branches and ran
after the men as quickly as he could. It seemed he wouldn’t have to
break into that huge house to get what he wanted after all.

* * * *

William Delany ran like the devil himself was behind him. Close

enough. Those guards worked for his father, and if they caught him
then they would return him to the man, and Master Delany was not
the sort of vampire anyone wanted to displease, especially not
William, the youngest son.

His Enemy Lover

The guards called after him, shouting at him to stop, as though he

would suddenly have a change of heart and do just that.

Yeah, right, like that was going to happen. He knew what their

orders were and he wasn’t about to let them catch him so easily.

William wasn’t required to train his body like they were. They

were gaining on him, and they would eventually catch him, he knew
that much, but he was going to make them work for it. Punishments
would come later.

Or sooner than he expected. William was tackled to the ground

and he took in a mouthful of dirt and grass. A hand came down on the
back of his head and grabbed a fistful of his hair, yanking his head
back, and he screamed, pushing out as much of the filth from his
mouth as he possibly could before another hand came around his
mouth.

He tried to bite down on it, but his captor was fast, and he got his

head slammed back down onto the ground for his trouble.

“Got him?” asked one of the other guards to run into the small

clearing where William lost the battle for his freedom.

“Yeah,” the other one on top of Will grunted. “Get over here and

grab his hands, will you? Where’s Lance?”

“He was right behind me,” the other guard said, coming down and

taking Will’s flailing hands and yanking them painfully behind his
back. “He’s probably on his way. He always was slower.”

The other vampire grunted again as they tied his hands with

something. Not a rope, but it was tight around his wrists.

Will screamed and bucked but he was trapped under the weight of

both vampires who were far stronger than he would ever be.

“Jesus, what did you do to his face?”
“Nothing. I tackled him and he took a mouthful of dirt.”
“Master Delany isn’t going to like that we brought him back with

his face smeared in dirt and blood like that.”

Blood? Will sniffed the air, and yeah, it was there, but not a lot.

There must have been small rocks that he’d scratched his face against

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when he went down.

“He’s not being sent to his new family for a little while yet. It’ll

heal, or he can heal himself.”

Bastards, Will thought.
They grabbed him under his armpits and hoisted him up. Will kept

his head down and glared at his shoes.

“Don’t have anything to say, my lord?” asked the one guard.
He glared harder at his feet. He wasn’t about to give these men, or

his father, the ammunition they required to do worse to him by
mouthing off. Slaves were tortured for such offenses, if they were
lucky. Family members could be locked away in their rooms, denied
meals, exercise, and other basic necessities.

Will was the youngest of ten children, not including the bastards

his father had sired and forgotten about, and no one knew how many
of them there were. There was no love in his family, and being the
youngest of all of those children certainly wouldn’t help him out in
any form. Especially because he’d been running from an arranged
marriage.

“Let him sulk. Where the hell is Lance?” asked the guard who

tackled him to begin with. Then he gasped, as though he’d gotten
something stuck in his throat.

“I don’t know where that lazy sack of―holy shit! Sir! What

the―?”

When both men holding him slowly let go, Will finally let his

confusion take hold of him and looked up, just in time to see an arrow
puncture through the neck of the second guard who held him by the
arms. The first one had an arrow in the exact same spot, through the
neck, and was slowly falling to his knees, gasping for air.

He really had gotten something stuck in his throat after all.
Of course, being vampires, they didn’t die right away, even with

all the blood spurting from their necks. They grasped at Will’s jacket
and the bag that was still slung over his shoulder, as though they were
begging him for help, pleading with him to heal them.

His Enemy Lover

Despite everything, he would have, if his hands weren’t tied

helplessly behind his back.

Finally, they fell over, and a figure dressed in black materialized

from the shadows. It was almost like he’d always been there, but Will
hadn’t noticed him.

He had a long knife in his hand, and was flicking it, making the

blade gleam in the moonlight in a way that Will didn’t like at all.

It was made worse by the fact that he couldn’t see the man’s face,

not with that black mask on him that covered his whole head and went
down his neck to the rest of the strange clothing he wore.

It wasn’t hard to figure out that this man was an assassin.
“Took me a minute to get to all the cameras and shut them down.

No one can see us now.”

He was still tied up, and the man behind him would probably

catch him anyway, but Will started running again, back in the
direction of the mansion, where relative safety would be waiting for
him.

The man caught him easily around the waist and pulled him down

on his knees on the grass, just like Will thought he would.

Will screamed for help, but something was shoved into his mouth

and tied behind his head.

A gag. Why couldn’t he catch a break? Why did everyone in the

world want to catch him and tie him up?

The knife was suddenly in front of him, whereas the assassin was

still behind him. It was so close to his eye that he could barely focus
on it. “I’m not here to kill you. That’s not my job, but I will if you try
and get us caught. Understand?”

Will nodded and swallowed hard around his gag.
“Good,” the man said, then tsked at him and smacked the bag he

was carrying on his back. “You should’ve dropped this the second
you were being pursued. Its added weight was probably what slowed
you down enough to get caught in the first place.”

Thank you, Captain Hindsight, Will wanted to say. He clenched

Marcy Jacks

his jaw instead. The back of his neck was grabbed and he was
suddenly yanked back up.

The stranger behind the black mask then did something even

scarier than putting a knife in front of his face. He stared at him. His
face came in, close, and while there were no eyeholes or anything, the
material was clearly something that the assassin would be able to see
through, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to do his job.

Their noses were practically touching as Will was examined, the

man’s head turned to the side a little, and Will swallowed.

He could feel the man’s body heat, and then the uncomfortable

sensation of sweat building at the back of his neck made him itchy,
but that didn’t take away the fear.

“I know you,” the man said.
His gloved hand came up from where they had been tightly

gripping Will’s arms, and he gently cupped his cheeks. Will flinched
a little as the man’s thumbs brushed away some of the dirt and dried
blood that had collected on his cheeks, but he wasn’t being rough
about it. If anything, he was trying to be gentle.

Will wasn’t about to risk that this was some kind of trick, a ploy

that was in the beginning stages of making him trust his captor.

“William? William Delany?” the man finally asked.
Will’s eyes widened. He tried to step back, but then the man’s

hands went to his arms again, and the grip was tight once more.

“I’m right, it is you,” he said, and then undid the gag and pulled it

out from between Will’s lips.

Will spat out some more of the dirt that was still stuck on his

tongue and between his teeth. He knew he was going to be feeling
that terrible sensation of tiny, popping rocks whenever he spoke for
the next little while.

“Who are you?”
The assassin hesitated. Will never thought he would be alive to

get the chance to ask an assassin anything. That was sort of the point.
They were meant to kill before the target even knew they were there.

His Enemy Lover

Finally, the man reached up and pulled the mask off of his face,

revealing himself.

Will’s heart went into overdrive, and he actually had some trouble

breathing. The darkest eyes he’d ever seen stared down at him
expectantly. He’d seen them only once before and never thought in a
million years that he would be fortunate enough to see them again.

He was older, thirteen years older, and so much more handsome

than the dirty boy Will recalled, but it was definitely him. Even all the
years and the addition of a well-trimmed beard couldn’t hide it.
“You.”

The man gave him a crooked grin, and his blue eyes seemed

mischievous and playful. “Yeah, me. Been a while, hasn’t it?”

He didn’t have a name, back when he was just a slave boy in

William’s father’s house. Everyone had just called him Boy. That was
the way it was. He’d worked in the kitchens, stayed out from
underfoot, and was often brought in whenever someone wanted to
feed from him. Even William had tasted from his vein before.

But he’d been just a child then as well. He hadn’t known any

better, that what he’d been doing was wrong.

They had been the same age, as far as Will was able to tell. Of

course, malnutrition could have made the large man before him seem
much smaller than he was at the time. Will guessed them both to be
about ten years old by the time the servant boy had tried to make his
escape.

And Will had let him go, all those years ago.
“What’s your name?” William asked. He had to know. By now he

must have taken a name for himself.

“Hawke.”
“Hawke,” Will said, testing it out on his tongue. Then he looked

down at the dead guards before looking back up into Hawke’s nearly
black eyes. “I guess it fits. You are a predator now.”

“Only to vampires,” he said, his face twisting into a frown.

“You’re coming with me.”

Marcy Jacks

Will dug his heels into the ground when Hawke tried to lead him

away, his terror suddenly returning full force as it occurred to him that
Hawke would not be his savior now as Will had been to him back
then. “Wait, where are you taking me?”

“Away from here. My clan needs a hostage, and from what those

guards were talking about, you’re still more than valuable.”

“A hostage? For what? What clan?”
“That’s enough talking for you,” Hawke said, and then the gag

came back.

Will ducked his head around, but then Hawke produced the knife

again. “There’s silver on this blade. I’m warning you. Hold still.”

He meant it, too. His eyes were hard, and if Will kept on

struggling against him, or if he called out and tried to run, Hawke
would chase him down and cut him.

“Why are you doing this? I saved your life,” Will said, then the

gag was shoved into his mouth and tied around his head, and he could
no longer speak with his mouth full of the material, and the tie
preventing him from spitting it out.

“That was years ago. If anything, you owed me that, considering

the blood you stole from me, and the shitty life I was living right
under your command.”

Will was only a child then. It hadn’t been under his command and

Hawke should know that. He wanted to argue those points, but
couldn’t now that he was bound and gagged.

Hawke turned away from him for only a second, just long enough

to put his mask back on, and Will, the coward that he was, was too
afraid to try tackling the man, or running while he wasn’t looking.

He’d seen what Hawke had done to his father’s guards, and he

didn’t want to end up dead out here. He didn’t want to end up dead
anywhere. He was only twenty-three, for God’s sake.

“All right, come on,” Hawke said, and then did something

completely crazy. It happened so fast that Will didn’t even have the
chance to prepare for it. Hawke bent down at the knees, looped his

His Enemy Lover

arms around Will’s legs, and then put his shoulder at Will’s stomach.

He lifted Will up and onto his shoulder, and the ground leaving

his feet like that was so startling that Will made a distressed sound
through his gag.

“Try to be quiet and try not to move. I don’t want to drop you,” he

said.

Will had no idea what he was talking about until Hawke started

climbing the trees, and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that this
could be no ordinary human he was dealing with.

Marcy Jacks

Chapter Two

Hawke travelled through the trees with his prize for as long as he

was able to. Will was a good captive, easily broken it seemed, and he
hardly moved while Hawke leaped through the branches and ran away
from the estate.

That was always the way it was with the rich and powerful. They

crumbled like dry mud, scattering like dust in the wind, the second a
fist squeezed just a little bit around them.

They took good care of their looks, too. Vampires aged to a point,

but even they could let themselves go if they wished. William Delany
was different from the child he remembered, but there was enough
that was the same that Hawke had recognized him on sight. He’d
never forgotten that young face that had saved him, and William had
grown into a handsome man.

Most vampires were physically attractive, he reminded himself.

That was no reason to lower his guard.

Despite his internal warnings, a quick flash of memory from long

ago, not quite forgotten, but hazy, played for him. He’d been injured.
He’d jumped out of a third-story window of the very estate he was
running away from. He’d done it during the day, and had to break a
window just to get out of the house.

He’d tried to grasp hold of one of the tree branches, but he’d

slipped and fallen.

Hawke had been so determined to get away, to finally discover

just what it was that lived outside of the property, that he hadn’t
realized he’d broken his leg until he’d tried running on it.

The pain had been unbearable, but he’d still kept on moving. He’d

His Enemy Lover

already gotten out, and the window had been broken. They would
know one of the slaves had tried to escape, and when they found him,
a broken leg would be the least of his worries.

He had tried so hard to keep moving, but by the time the sun had

set and full dark came, he hadn’t made it very far at all.

Then he had come and found him.
Hawke jerked his shoulder to get some kind of response out of the

vampire he carried. There was a groan, but not much else. Likely
passed out due to all the excitement he was not used to receiving.
Hawke half wished he’d found someone else, but this was too perfect
to pass up. The vampires would know that he was missing already, so
Hawke hardly needed to make a scene with that, and thanks to the
clues he left behind on the bodies, they would also know which
species had done it.

A human. A human had bested some of their vampire guards and

stolen a member of their family. All without ever entering that giant,
oppressing house.

The sun soon started to make itself known, and it got to be too

dangerous to travel with his new cargo. Hawke was forced to stop and
make a small shelter in the trees. It wasn’t much. Just a camouflaged
tarp that would keep them hidden.

With William already sleeping, Hawke took the time to take a

small vial out of one of his many hidden pockets and pour it down his
throat. That would keep him unconscious and make it safer for Hawke
to sleep. Even the best assassins needed their rest from time to time.
Ignore that, and the decision making and reflexes went to shit.

He used a rope to tie the both of them to the tree to prevent either

of them from falling, and only then did he allow himself a moment to
really look at the man. How thirteen years had changed so much
between them.

Hawke travelled like that for two days, always using his drugs to

keep his hostage complacent. He loved this potion. Witches and
warlocks tended to make him nervous, but they were good in their

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production of potions and other things. If one could afford them.

Sleeping death. While William was under its effects, he didn’t

need to be fed, watered, and all basic necessities were put on hold. It
was the perfect tool when dealing in hostages.

Still, when he finally arrived back at the clan, the stars and moon

above him, he was relieved. It had been a long trip, and he was tired.

The torches were still lit, and there were men on patrol, guarding

the little shacks that had been built. There were dogs with them, all of
them dark in color to better blend in with the night.

The dogs knew who he was, but the scent of the man he carried

was unfamiliar to them, and they growled as he approached, which
put the guards in a tense position until they saw who was coming
through the orange light of the torches.

“Hawke! You’re back!” Vaughn said.
Hawke grinned at his best friend. He should have known the man

was on guard duty tonight. He was the only one capable of making
these mutts obey him, after all.

“Yeah, and I got us a new friend, too,” he said, shifting the weight

on his shoulder. He couldn’t wait to put the man down after travelling
like this for two days and nights. His shoulders were killing him.

“Brian’s in the main cabin. Felicia came down with the flu, and

she hasn’t been getting up lately.”

That made everything inside of Hawke’s chest freeze up. “When

did that happen?”

“Right after you left,” Vaughn said, and then started walking with

him toward his house. “She was walking around at first, fine and
normal, for her, but then she fainted dead away while carrying the
laundry with the others. Brian won’t let her get out of bed.”

That sounded like a good plan, and Hawke was in full agreement

with it. He went to the main cabin, which was really just a larger
shack than the others that had more walls built in for rooms, and even
a wooden floor instead of a dirt floor.

“Are you going to bring him inside with you?” Vaughn asked.

His Enemy Lover

Hawke stopped. Shit, he’d entirely forgotten about William. He

set the man down carefully next to the door.

“Watch him,” he said.
“Is this the, uh…?” Vaughn trailed off, looking down at the tied-

up man with a mix of fear and suspicion.

“Yeah. He’s drugged, though. Even if he starts to wake up, he

won’t be able to do anything to you.”

“Good to know. Never saw a vampire up close before. He doesn’t

look like much.”

“He’s not,” Hawke said, and then opened the door to the house

and let himself inside.

Vaughn was a guard, and he had the dogs, and William was

drugged. There would be nothing to worry about. He could put all his
efforts at the moment into seeing to the safety of his mother.

The lamps were lit inside. There was a wooden table with some

chairs off to the right, and to his left was the stand with the water
buckets, and dishes on the shelves. Other weapons and blades were
hanging within easy reach on the rest of the walls, right where they
had always been as far back as Hawke could remember.

There were only two rooms in the small house, and the largest

belonged to the leader of the clan and his wife.

Brian stepped out of his bedroom at the sound of someone

entering, and his worried face lifted into a smile at the sight of him.
He opened his arms, and Hawke went into them.

“I am so happy you’re back, son,” he said.
Hawke was only a few inches taller than him, and he squeezed his

father tight before pulling away. “If I’d known I would’ve tried to get
here faster. How is she?”

Brian gripped him by the shoulders, then he seemed to look

around himself, at all the walls and the things on them in his house,
before looking back up at Hawke with shining eyes.

Hawke’s heart dropped. He shook his head. “No.”
“Lilly has been giving her everything she can think of, but, it

Marcy Jacks

seems the only thing we can do at this point is to try and keep her
comfortable,” Brian said. He kept his voice down, as though careful
to not disturb someone who was sleeping. Maybe Felicia was awake
and he didn’t want her to overhear how her fate was already sealed.
“The best we can do now is say our good-byes, give our thanks, and
try to make her last days happy. She’ll be so glad to see you.”

Brian had his hand on Hawke’s shoulder and was gently pulling

him toward the bedroom. Hawke moved without even really thinking
about it. Felicia was always prone to bad health, but to come back
from a mission and find out that this would be the last in a long line of
bad colds…he didn’t know how to take it in.

His mother was in bed, bundled up carefully in the quilts and

pillows. There was another lamp on at her nightstand, and she had a
book lying open and facedown on her chest.

Her soft brown eyes were also open, and she had a gentle smile on

her cracked lips as he appeared in the doorway. “Hi, sweetheart,” she
said.

Hawke went to her open arms, noting how weak they were around

his back, even though she had always hugged him tight.

* * * *

Will listened with half an ear to the things that were going on

inside of the shack that Hawke had taken him to. His vision was
spinning, and it only helped if he kept his eyes closed, but his ears
still worked perfectly well.

This was Hawke’s family’s house? He’d thought that the boy he’d

rescued all those years ago had been alone in the world. Had he
escaped only to find his parents?

Will liked the thought of that. That despite what Hawke was doing

to him now, Will had not released a boy slave into the wild for him to
simply be taken by the elements. There had been others waiting for
him who had loved him and were glad to have him back.

His Enemy Lover

The only thing Will regretted was that apparently, the woman

inside was dying. He could smell it all over the house. There was a
sickness here, and his ears picked up an unsteady heartbeat within.
Whoever the woman inside was, she didn’t have much time left.

William could heal her. He was good at that. He’d never been sick

a day in his life, and every cut and scrape he’d gotten as a child was
always gone before he had the chance to bleed all over the expensive
clothing that his parents purchased for him.

There were dogs near him, and the heavy footsteps of a man―he

thought it was a man―pacing back and forth in front of him.

Humans were dangerous. William hadn’t forgotten about what all

the texts said about them, about how they had brought about a great
war that destroyed everything hundreds of years ago, before his time,
and before his father’s time, even. There were some vampires still
alive today who spoke about how things were before the great
explosion that had destroyed everything. The paranormals had risen
up, taking control and finally putting the humans in their place, which
in turn created more problems for themselves, seeing as how this was
happening to Will now.

Humans didn’t live as long as vampires or werewolves, so of

course they had forgotten, they blamed the vampires for their
problems. If this human that was pacing around so close to him
realized he was awake, and was one of the more violent humans who
was not prone to listening to reason, well, Will would be in trouble.

He wondered where his bag was. He was getting hungry.
He realized it the second he heard the zipper ripping down, and

curious hands digging through his things.

“Ugh! What the hell?”
His blood bags had been found.
“Don’t throw them away,” Will said, chancing to open his eyes,

and then wishing he hadn’t when the dizziness came back onto him.
He shut his eyes again, but not before he saw the human startle and
jump away from him. One of the dogs came close and growled.

Marcy Jacks

Wonderful.
“You’re awake.”
Will tried to move, but he couldn’t. It took him a second to figure

out that it wasn’t just the fact that his hands were tied behind his back
that was doing that. He felt sluggish and tired, but there was no way
this place had been anywhere near his father’s estate. Hawke must
have run an awfully long way with him.

Drugs. That was the only thing that could be used to keep him

unconscious for long enough that a kidnapper could steal him away
with ease. He shivered at the thought of what had been happening to
him during the daylight hours when he’d been entirely defenseless.

A pair of fingers snapped in front of his face, and he blinked up at

the human who was examining him. Dark-blond hair that was shaggy
around his face, and soft-brown eyes. The man was not glaring at him,
and he did not give Will the impression that he intended to harm him,
but he would still be cautious.

He was certainly not as handsome as Hawke was.
“Drugs must still be working through you,” the man said, then he

shook his head. “I can’t believe Hawke actually did it. I know he’s
good and everything, but damn.”

Will blinked his eyes, trying to will away the dizziness, but the

more he saw the world around him spin, the more he wanted to throw
up the contents of his stomach. He had to focus his energy. He had to
heal himself, but only a little. If this human noticed, then he might
think that Will was trying to cast some sort of elemental spell to fight
back, and then he might very well kill him.

“Don’t throw away my blood bags. Need them,” he said, his

tongue suddenly sluggish as he worked his magic mostly on healing
his headache and the nausea he felt.

The human actually snorted a laugh. “Right, because you need

those to keep from putting your mouth on human necks, right? What
do you people do? Drain them like pigs and then sip it from wine
glasses?”

His Enemy Lover

Actually, that was what happened, but only to the slaves who

disobeyed, or were being punished. The others went into rooms and
were hooked into machines once a month to be harvested, and then
they went on their way.

It was the only day out of the entire month when they were given

the day off, due to health reasons. It was also why not every slave was
brought in on the same day. Couldn’t have them all not working at the
same time.

He didn’t tell that to the human in front of him. No need to give

him more of a reason to be angry with him.

His silence was damning enough, apparently.
Will opened his eyes once more, feeling a little less sick as he did

so, but the sight of the human in front of him, shaking with rage, and
fists clenched as his dogs stood behind him, just waiting for their
master’s command to strike, had him wishing that he’d continued to
pretend to be unconscious.

The man didn’t come near him, however, nor did he threaten him.

He made a sound of disgust instead, and then leaned against the wall
of the house, shaking his head.

“I won’t touch your precious blood bags. Hope you have enough

to last you until your ransom is paid.”

Will didn’t like the sound of that. He’d only packed two bags.
He wanted to tell the man that he could heal the woman within the

house, but he didn’t get the chance to before the door opened once
more, and Hawke stepped out.

He looked down at Will, and then over to the human. “Did he do

anything?”

“No. It just woke up. What are you going to do with it?”
Will felt like he’d just swallowed something bad. No one had ever

called him an it before.

“I’ll be sleeping in the barn for the next little while, keeping an

eye on him. Can’t leave him alone and there’s no way we’re bringing
him into any of the houses.”

Marcy Jacks

The human nodded. “Smart move. The empty stalls should be

good for that if you keep it restrained.”

“Restrained?” Will asked.
Both men ignored him, but Hawke pulled the gag that had

formerly been in Will’s mouth out of his pocket.

“You’re right. Have to get his jaw shut first now that he’s awake.

Don’t want him biting me.”

“No.” Will tried to turn his head away, but Hawke was as quick as

his namesake, and he had the thing in Will’s mouth and tied around
his head quickly.

“That doesn’t look like it’ll prevent him from biting,” said the

other human.

“Not really, but it’ll make things difficult. He won’t be able to bite

me at all if you take his feet.”

The other human did, and together they carried Will over to

another shack, a barn. The wood appeared old and rotting. He feared
the thing would fall down on them the moment they stepped inside.

All of Will’s hope slowly seeped out of him when they stepped

through the doors and into the dark space.

He was suddenly questioning the wisdom of running away from

home when the doors closed behind them.

His Enemy Lover

Chapter Three

Despite Will’s fears, he was left mostly alone. He’d learned that

the name of the man with the dogs was Vaughn, but it did not make
him like him any more. He insisted on calling Will an it, and on
keeping his distance whenever possible.

He was the dangerous one in this barn, not Will.
The man had also not been kind to him when Hawke requested

that he tie Will to one of the stalls while he went to check on the
animals.

The man had been rough, had brought in more ropes than what

Will thought was necessary, and had tied them so tight around his
wrists that the blood circulation was cut off, and he could no longer
feel them. He wanted to complain about his discomfort, that a lack of
blood flow to a vampire in particular was very painful, but when he
tried to speak through his gag, the man had just brought over more
ropes and shoved them into Will’s mouth.

He was currently kneeling in one of the stalls, his hands stretched

out on either side of him, and tied off to heavy wooden beams.

He supposed he should be grateful for the fact that his stall was

clean, at least. He could see only fresh hay, and scented nothing foul.

Of course, there were also not that many animals in the barn that

he’d seen, and the few chickens and one cow that he had seen all
looked underfed.

He’d overheard Vaughn mentioning something about pigs as well

before the man left them, and then he was entirely alone with Hawke.

Hawke and the curious chickens that had come into Will’s stall to

observe him.

Marcy Jacks

A lamp had been lit, but Hawke was the one carrying it around as

he went about his chores. Then finally, the light came closer. Will
could hear Hawke moving things around, then he saw what they were
through his open stall.

Hawke was setting up his bed. He’d unfolded a small cot and was

placing it in front of the opening of Will’s stall. There was a wooden
crate he had as well, and he set that next to his small bed before
putting the lamp down on it.

He glanced over his shoulder once to look at Will, and then started

to rummage through Will’s bag.

Will was surprised the man had kept it.
“Let’s see what you have in here.”
Will wanted to shout at the man, to release some of his annoyance

at the complete lack of respect for his privacy, but he could do
nothing but glare as Hawke began pulling out clothing, the two blood
bags he had, a single bottle of water and wrapped sandwich, and the
books that Will favored.

When Hawke turned to look at him again, it was with a single

brow raised and an incredulous look on his face. “This is it? You were
running away to be by yourself out in the wild, and this was what you
brought for survival?”

Will glared at him.
Hawke continued to look at him and then back down into the bag,

as though he expected something else to materialize out of thin air.
“There’s not even a hunting knife in here, and don’t tell me you
wouldn’t need it as a vampire. Even vampires eat. How would you
have skinned anything you caught? How long would you have lasted
with one bottle of water and two blood bags?”

At the mention of the blood bags, Will’s stomach rumbled loudly.

He wanted to die of humiliation.

Hawke heard it, and he sighed before taking the sandwich and one

blood bag and then got to his feet.

“At least you brought this at all. Don’t expect very many people to

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share food with you. You’ll probably be going hungry for a while
until your family finds out you’re gone,” Hawke said.

Will was apparently an idiot when it came to planning his escapes,

but he knew better than to think that these humans would let him go
free.

When Hawke came forward and pulled the gag out of his mouth,

muttering about the overuse of ropes as he pulled them down, Will
called him on his bullshit.

“You have no intention of letting me go. You’re going to kill me,”

he said.

Hawke’s hands stilled for just a moment, but it was enough. Will

knew he’d gotten to the truth. The humans were keeping him alive for
now, only because they might need him for when the vampires made
contact. Maybe they were going to record some image with him tied
up and send it away to his father and fiancé before they killed him.

One less mouth to feed. Will was surprised that Hawke was even

letting him eat the sandwich. Someone else would likely benefit from
it more than he was, considering they were planning on killing him
anyway, and the vibe he was getting from this place.

Stupid, and here he was thinking it was kind of romantic to meet

the man he’d known from childhood after all of these years apart. He
was stupid.

“That sick woman. I can help her,” he said. If he made himself

useful, then maybe Hawke wouldn’t want to kill him.

Hawke froze in the middle of lifting half the sandwich to his

mouth, his dark eyes going wide.

“Bullshit,” he said, his expression not changing.
“I can. You know I can,” Will said, and then he looked down at

the sandwich. “I’ll need the blood first. It keeps my body going,” he
said.

“I―right. I guess that makes sense. Can’t digest anything if your

body isn’t working right,” Hawke said, for the first time sounding out
of place to Will.

Marcy Jacks

He reached back and grabbed one of the blood bags. He looked it

over, turning the clear plastic bag about, and then he looked at the
twin plastic inserts.

“I put my fangs in those,” Will said, craning his neck a little closer

now that the blood he needed was almost within reach.

“If you try to bite me, I’ll kill you,” Hawke said.
Will believed him. He opened his mouth and let his fangs stretch

out, and as the plastic came beneath his lips, he was careful to bite
down onto on the inserts. They opened under the pressure of his teeth,
and the blood flowed into his mouth through the holes in his fangs,
allowing him to suck back and drink.

He couldn’t help the little moan that came out of him as he fed.

He was so damn hungry.

“How much of this will you drink? Will the rest spill out if you

don’t finish?” Hawke asked.

He was certainly more polite than Vaughn was.
Will shook his head as much as he dared, and then pulled his teeth

out of the inserts. The rubber inside them closed up the second his
fangs were free. “Blood will only leak out of the bags if you squeeze
them too tight,” he said, licking his lips. “They should last me for a
couple of days.”

“Only a couple?” Hawke said, giving him that same look that

suggested how much of an idiot he thought Will was being for not
packing the right equipment.

“I’ve never run away from home before. I only grabbed what I

thought I needed.”

“Clearly, you aren’t aware of what you need if this was all you

took. I swear it looks like you were packing like you thought you
were going out for a stroll.”

Will glared at him.
Hawke ignored it and held the bag back up to his mouth.
Will turned away from it. “I don’t need that now,” he said,

looking at the sandwich that Hawke had put back into its plastic

His Enemy Lover

wrapper.

“Can you really heal her?” Hawke asked, not looking at him in the

eyes, and only staring at his mouth as he fed Will the sandwich.

Will took a large bite, chewed and then swallowed. “I healed you,

didn’t I?”

Hawke frowned, still staring at his mouth. “That was a physical

injury. She’s sick. She gets sick at least once a season and every time
it gets worse, but even by her standards, this is bad. Can you heal an
illness?”

“I heal my own all the time,” Will said, taking another bite of the

offered sandwich. “I’ll save her life, and you can let me go. That’s my
deal.”

“How about you save her life, and I won’t let the other villagers

torture you to death. That’s my deal.”

Will’s eyes widened. “They want to torture me?”
“You’re a vampire. There’s not a lot of love for your kind around

here, or any of the paranormals.”

“I never did anything to them!” Will said, his panic rising up.
“I know, but that won’t matter to them.” Hawke finally managed

to look him in the eyes. Maybe he thought he owed it to Will,
considering he was talking about his entire village murdering Will
just for existing. “Why did you save me, that day?”

Will swallowed. “I don’t know,” he lied.
“You could have bled me dry, or called to the guards to have them

pick me up. It wouldn’t have been hard, all things considered.”

The slave boy Will remembered had his leg broken. The bone

wasn’t popping out or anything so obvious as that, but he could still
sense the damage within, and when he’d focused, he could see it as
well. There had been some blood on him, though, from the other
scratches and cuts he’d sustained in his escape, so it really would have
been only a matter of time before the guards had found the boy. He
could have walked away, but as suddenly as the thought entered his
mind, it was gone. He couldn’t do something like that. Not to that

Marcy Jacks

boy. So he’d healed him and sent him on his way.

“I guess I wanted to see if you’d make it out. The thought of

getting away had never occurred to me until I met you, and I wanted
to give you that chance.”

“You waited thirteen years before you decided to follow my

example?”

“And considering where I am now, I wish I’d thought to get out

sooner,” Will said, glaring at him.

Hawke glared back. Clearly his mood for humoring Will was

gone. He held up the bag of blood. “How many of your slaves did it
take to fill this?”

Will winced. “That wasn’t my choice. I don’t like drinking from

them.”

“But you do it anyway.”
“I’ll die if I don’t!”
Hawke shook his head and then got to his feet. He looked like he

wanted to storm right out of the barn, but then he must have recalled
that he was supposed to be watching over Will, and he stopped just
outside of the stall.

“I’m not arguing this with a vampire,” he said, half turning to look

at him. “I can be nice to you if you let me, don’t provoke me, and
don’t try to escape, and I’ll make sure your stay here will be as
pleasant as possible.”

“Before you let everyone in your village kill me?”
Hawke turned away from him, and Will watched the man’s

shoulders rise and fall as he heaved a heavy sigh.

“I need to get some air, and I don’t think you’re going anywhere.

I’ll be back in two minutes, and the dogs are all sniffing around
outside. I wouldn’t make any noise to draw attention to yourself while
I’m gone either. Don’t want any of the villagers to realize you’re here
already and get some ideas.”

Will stiffened. The sudden thought of Hawke leaving him here,

alone and helpless, was not so appealing, especially under those

His Enemy Lover

circumstances.

“You’re just going to leave me here?”
“I’ll be back. I need to speak with my father.”

* * * *

Hawke meant what he said, and that was why he needed to be

quick about this, especially with his mother’s health failing by the
second. The only reason why he’d gone away to the barn was because
he’d volunteered for the job of watcher even before he’d left, and
before she’d fallen ill.

He’d only left her side after helping her to drink some warm

water, kissing her forehead, and making Brian promise to come and
get him if there were any changes in the night.

His mother had already been half unconscious by the time he left,

and he had to wait until morning before another person could be
found to replace him, as far as guarding the vampire went.

He really wished he’d taken someone else, but there was no

helping that now. He’d done what he’d done, and just because he was
starting to feel guilty about what was expected to happen was no
reason for him to be having second thoughts, especially if Will was
able to do something about his mother’s illness.

He opened the door to the house he shared with his parents and let

himself in.

He’d tried to be quiet, but of course, his father heard his footsteps

anyway. He wouldn’t be the leader of the clan if he didn’t have the
kind of skills that would allow him to keep predators at bay, after all.

“Did something happen with the vampire?” Brian asked once he

saw that there was no threat. “Or did someone come to you and take
your place?”

“Not yet, but there’s something I need to tell you,” Hawke said,

sparing a glance toward the doorway to his parents’ room. “Do you
remember when I first came here?”

Marcy Jacks

Brian spared him a sad smile. He was surprised the man could

muster that much, considering his wife was dying in the other room.
“Happiest day of our lives.”

Hawke pushed away the swell of affection he felt for this man and

got back to being serious. “Do you remember what I said? How I was
able to run so far, so fast, without hardly ever stopping?”

Now Brian frowned at him. “You said a healer came to you. One

of the members of the estate you were serving with.”

“Brian, that vampire I came back with is the healer. He told me he

can heal mother if we let him go after everything is said and done.”

Brian’s brows shot into his fading hairline. Then he rubbed his

face with his hands. “That’s…”

“It’s a lot to take in, I know, but he healed me, so do you think we

can let him try to do something with her?”

“This isn’t just some misunderstood mage you’re talking about,

son.”

“I know.”
“That’s a vampire in there, and if it were to try anything on

Felicia, even with ten men in the room watching him, there’s no
saying what it could do to her before we would have the chance to
stop him. It could puncture its fist through her chest and it would be
more than too late to save her once we managed to pull it off.”

“I know, I’m just telling you that we might be able to do

something about this.”

Brian blew out a hard breath, and then he shook his head. “Who is

watching the creature now?”

“No one. He was perfectly restrained when I left and he’s still got

the drugs in his system. I told him I would be back in two minutes, I
just thought I’d let you know about this before it was too late.”

“She could go any day now,” Brian said, though he seemed to be

talking mostly to himself.

“I know, so we don’t have a lot of time to decide what to do.”

Especially once those vampire slavers realized that a human had

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stolen one of their own. They had so little time left. The humans were
getting ready to take back the land. This district of it, at least.
Kidnapping a single vampire of noble blood was nowhere near the
full extent of what was happening. Other clans were making their own
preparations as well, and there were other vampire estates that were
being targeted.

Brian looked back toward his bedroom, and then at Hawke. “Take

me to him. I need to see this vampire healer for myself.”

Hawke was glad for this. He had to remind himself that it might

not work out for the best. Brian might decide that he didn’t trust the
vampire that they had, and Felicia might very well not want a vampire
near her.

So many people across all of the free clans had suffered at the

hands of vampires. Felicia was among them. Hawke hadn’t known
until only a few years ago that Brian was actually her second husband,
the first having been killed many years ago while defending his
village from raiding vampire slavers. It was no wonder the creatures
were hated so much.

“Let’s go,” Hawke said.

Marcy Jacks

Chapter Four

What they found when they made it back to the barn was

something that made Hawke’s stomach churn and his eyes see red.

Three villagers had apparently discovered that the prisoner had

finally arrived, and they were having their fun with him now that he
was tied up and completely helpless.

Vaughn. He must have mentioned something in passing to the few

other farmhands he shared his house with, and with the exception of
Vaughn, they’d all come over to see a vampire up close.

“Get away from him!” Hawke snapped, and the three men

scattered. One had been holding onto Will’s head while the other two
held his mouth open. They had been wearing thick working gloves,
but the sight of the pliers in the hands of one of the farmhands was
what really set off Hawke’s anger.

“We were just having some fun with him,” said the youngest,

Carl. The stupid boy was barely older than seventeen.

“The fun’s over. What did you think you were going to do with

that tool, Hank?”

Hank was the oldest in their group, the same age as Hawke and a

real shit disturber. The guy was never going to grow up.

The man put the pliers behind his back like a guilty child and

smiled in what he must have thought was a charming manner.
“Nothing, I just thought it would be cool to have some vampire teeth
hanging around my neck. Warriors wear things like that to show off
their kills.”

That little shit. “So, you would have taken his teeth out to wear

them, even though I was the one to capture him and bring him in?”

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Hawke asked, folding his arms as he regarded the other man. Hank
was about the same size as Hawke was. Working the land gave all the
men here some muscle, but Hawke was much more skilled in battle,
and he would mop the floor with the man if he stepped out of line
again.

Hank knew it, but naturally, he didn’t want to admit to it.
He huffed in annoyance then threw the pliers down on the

scattered hay at their feet. “Fine. You take ’em then. Didn’t want to
risk that vampire would bite me anyway.”

“Which was why you had two other men helping you to keep his

mouth open, right?”

Hank glared at him, and he and the others walked out of the barn,

though Hank was the only one to keep his head held high.

Brian sighed. “That boy will be the death of me.”
“I can kill him if you want. It’ll get him out of both of our hairs,”

Hawke said, kneeling down to inspect Will. His binds were still tight,
though he was shaking in a way that had Hawke worried.

“Don’t even joke about that, son. How is he?”
Hawke couldn’t tell. “Will? They’re gone now. It’s okay.”
“Right,” Will said, shaking his head. “Because you saved them

from ripping my fangs out just so you could do it yourself.”

Hawke rolled his eyes. “Like I would want to wear vampire fangs

after what they did to me. Are you hurt? You’re shaking.”

“M-my hands,” Will said. “I can’t move them. My fingers feel

swollen and hot.”

“Your hands?”
The lamp light came closer, and Hawke looked behind himself to

see that his father had stepped forward with the light. He winced at
the sight of Will’s hands.

They were blue and swollen. Large veins were snaking up through

the skin, and some looked ready to burst.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Hawke asked, though he made

no move to remove the binds.

Marcy Jacks

“Didn’t think it mattered, or that it was so bad,” Will said, and

then he squeezed his eyes shut and inhaled a shaking breath. “It
fucking hurts.”

Hawke hated how his heart constricted at the pain he was seeing

here. It shouldn’t matter. Will was the enemy, a slave owner and a
vampire. He shouldn’t care if the rich kid was being humbled like
this, but he did.

He was never really into torture.
“If I let your hands loose, will you try to run?”
Will looked up at him, the shock in his eyes telling about how he

hadn’t expected the offer. “I won’t run. I swear I won’t do anything.”

“Be careful, son,” Brian said, though he didn’t give Hawke the

command to walk away, despite his promise.

Hawke pulled out his knife, ignoring the way Will flinched at the

sight of it, and then he began cutting at the ropes that were keeping
him in place.

Will released a long sigh and fell forward when his hands were

free. Hawke stepped back and away from him, watching the man
carefully in case he tried to do something now that he was out.

The only thing Will did was get off of his knees to lie on his back,

and it occurred to Hawke that he’d likely been suffering from a lack
of blood flow to his legs as well.

“I never knew a lack of blood circulation could have those kinds

of effects that quickly on a vampire,” Brian said.

Neither had Hawke.
Will just nodded, rubbing his still-blue wrists on his chest,

probably because his fingers were still numb and swollen.

“Yeah, well, we kind of live off of blood. Needs to get

everywhere, right?”

Hawke really was going to punch those three idiots in the back of

the head for this. He moved over to his pack which was next to the cot
he’d set up. There was a jar of cream inside, and he pulled it out,
uncapped it, and walked back over to Will.

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The vampire could barely sit up after all of that, so he was hardly

worried about an attack.

He would keep on his guard just a little, however, just in case.
Will looked at him with equally cautious eyes as Hawke applied

the salve to his wrists and hands.

“That’s―it feels cool,” Will said.
“It’s meant to. I imagine it still burns, having all that blood

suddenly flowing back into your hands.”

Will nodded.
He was clearly still in pain, and would be until the swelling went

down. There was nothing Hawke could do for him other than apply
the salve. Perhaps the only reason why he was comfortable touching a
vampire like this was because of who the vampire was. Hawke was
not an uncaring monster, despite how the image sometimes helped.
He didn’t want Will to suffer, but it would have been better if being
so close didn’t make his heart race the way it did. “What about your
legs and feet? Will they be needing treatment?” he asked, trying to
focus on something else.

Hawke felt the vampire shift beneath him, and looked down

quickly to see that he was simply wiggling his toes and testing his
legs. “No. I think they’re fine on their own.”

Hawke was glad for that. The thought of having to take the man’s

pants off and apply the salve to his bare legs and feet was suddenly
giving him mental images that he shouldn’t be having.

“My son said that you are the healer that rescued him some years

ago. Is it true that you could do something for my wife?” Brian asked.

Hawke looked down at him, waiting for his answer.
Will sighed. “I want to say yes, but I don’t know what’s wrong

with her, and I wouldn’t be able to do anything right now anyway. At
least not until my hands are healed.”

“You’re a warlock then?” Hawke asked, stunned.
Will frowned. “No, I’ve never been able to cast spells, but I can

heal myself, and others.” Will looked at him pointedly when he said

Marcy Jacks

this. “I’ve never caught a cold before in my life, so I’m only assuming
that I can help with her illness.”

Hawke turned to look at his father. The man had a hand on his

chin and was clearly thinking it over. Hawke wanted to know what
was on his mind, but he wasn’t sure about talking in front of the
prisoner.

Brian, apparently, had no such reservations. “I could always

assume that you are attempting to make yourself useful to keep us
from harming you, but I believe my son when he says you did what
you did, and you’re being honest enough with me about not being
sure you can even do something for her at all, instead of making
promises you might not be able to keep.”

Hawke hadn’t even thought about that, and it was true. Will was

being honest and respectful here when he had every reason not to be.
It made Hawke wonder about him.

“If you’re not a warlock then at the very least you’re a healer

mage. If you can heal yourself then I’ll expect your hands to be in
decent enough condition to try something by tomorrow morning.”

“Morning?” Will asked, his eyes widening fearfully.
“We’ll bring you in before dawn, keep the shutters closed, and

bring you back with something to cover you so you don’t get burned,”
Hawke said, knowing that Brian had forgotten about those details
when it came to thinking about the health of his wife.

Brian nodded. “Exactly.”
“Until then,” Hawke said, putting a hint of a warning in his voice,

even as he held Will’s hands and massaged that salve into his skin,
salve that was becoming more and more rare as the farm ran out of
supplies and money to have it made. “You will not try to run away,
you will not try to attack anyone, and I promise you, in return, I won’t
let anyone touch you or try to hurt you again.”

“And if I heal his wife, your mother, what then?” Will asked.
Hawke looked to Brian. That was his call, after all.
“If Felicia gets out of bed tomorrow in perfect health, when all

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this is said and done with the vampires, we will set you free to go off
wherever you like.”

Will didn’t even think about the deal he was being offered,

another sign that he was going to be no good out on his own if he was
in the habit of accepting the first good thing to come his way without
ever questioning it.

“Deal.”

Marcy Jacks

Chapter Five

Will spent the night focusing his energy on healing his hands. He

was going to need them if he planned on getting out of here alive, and
now that he had the word of the leader of the clan, he was in much
higher spirits than he was only a few hours ago when he’d woken up
in this strange human village.

He’d always known about the human villages. They were hidden

places, usually situated near the very edges of the districts, so that if
the humans needed to run, they could always cross the borders where
other paranormal creatures ruled, and the vampires had no power.

Could Hawke really have taken him so far away from home that

he was on the borderlands? The thought was frightening as well as
interesting. Will would never have to go back, his family nest would
never find him, so long as he got out of here alive.

Hawke went back to his cot after he finished coating Will’s hands

with so much of the salve that they were slippery and felt odd when
he rubbed his fingers together. At least the pain was gone, and he
could move his hands now, so there was always that to be thankful
for. The leader of the clan had gone back to his house to watch over
his ill wife, and that left the two of them alone here in the barn once
more.

“I didn’t know you had any family when I let you go,” he said,

and Hawke turned to look at him sharply.

Will couldn’t help the small, stupid smile that was no doubt on his

face. “I’m glad I didn’t send you off to be killed by the elements.”

The human looked at him from his seat on the cot. Since his father

had left, Hawke had to tie him up again, only this time, the rope was

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like a loose leash around his neck that was not tight, but too small for
Will to get over his head, if he was interested in attempting something
like that, which, at the moment, he was not. His hands remained
blessedly free, and he started to see some color returning to his skin,
and his legs were no longer tingling.

“You did more than save my life that day,” Hawke said. “I don’t

know if you know this, but when you healed me, something passed
between us. I had so much energy that I ran all the way here, almost
without stopping, and I wanted to keep running even after that.”

Will blinked. “Really?”
Hawke nodded. “I’m guessing this isn’t a side effect that you’re

aware of.”

Will shook his head. “Of all the times I’ve healed myself over the

years, I’ve never felt a rush of energy like that. How long did it last?”

Hawke leaned back and regarded him casually. He was no longer

wearing the setup that he’d been in when they came across each other
on Will’s family property. Now he looked more like a farm boy. Torn
jeans and a thin, white T-shirt and boots were the only articles of
clothing on him. Though, Will could still make out the straps and
small bulges beneath his clothing that suggested he was hiding
weapons.

Did the man go to sleep like that?
“I think it’s still working through me. I’ve always had a lot of

stamina, and can run farther and faster than anyone else in the village
before I need to stop. I don’t have quite the amount of energy I did on
that day, though.”

“Is that why you are sent on…missions? Was that why you were

chosen to get me?”

“I wasn’t chosen, I volunteered, and yes, that is why. I’m better at

killing vampires who get a little too close to our territory, looking for
stray humans to take back to their estates.”

Will flinched at the harsh tone in his voice, and he looked away.
Hawke sighed and rubbed his face. “I can’t apologize to you if I

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seem a little rough. Everything I say is true, but I promise I will do
my best to keep the others on the farm from hurting you. You don’t
seem like a particularly violent vampire.”

“I’m not,” Will said, then he grinned a bit. “The vampire warriors

of my house, even my older brothers and sisters, tend to make fun of
me for that one.”

Hawke frowned a little. “I see.”
Will kept on thinking about what Hawke said about having so

much extra energy. “I didn’t know…I never thought a transfer of that
kind of power was possible. You might want to keep an eye on your
mother after I’m done with her, to see if she shows any similar
symptoms that you did that day. Then maybe we’ll know if this is just
part of my power, or a fluke.”

“Something that happened between you and me alone?”
It did sound kind of ridiculous, but it was all Will had to go on. “I

guess so, yeah.”

Hawke made a grunting noise that Will guessed was supposed to

be a sign of agreement, but then he didn’t respond other than that.

Will waited for him to say something else, and when he didn’t, he

assumed that was to be the end of their discussion, and he decided he
might as well make himself comfortable on his bed of hay.

It wasn’t the end, it seemed. “They aren’t really my parents.”
Will looked back at the man who was still sitting on the edge of

his cot. “They’re not? But I heard you say―”

“I know, but humans are different from vampires. They can take

other children in who aren’t their own if they want. Blood doesn’t
have the same meaning to us that it does to you.”

Will frowned and looked away before facing his captor once

more. “I wish you would stop grouping me in with other vampires.
Hard as it is to understand to you, but I get it. They are a couple
without children, so they took you in and raised you as their own. You
were what? Ten? Eleven years old?”

“Twelve, and they did have a child, a boy nearly my age. I never

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met him. Vampire slavers came and took him, and I showed up after
they gave up the hope of ever finding the kid again.” Hawke’s eyes
became hard as he stared at Will. “Which is why I’m going to give
you a fair warning on this. Vampires have hurt them enough already.
If you try anything at all suspicious when you have your hands over
my mother, if you try to hurt either her or Brian, I will not hesitate in
putting a silver knife through your throat.”

Will nodded, but he returned the glare. “Understood, but I wish

you would stop threatening me. You must see by now that you don’t
need to do that to get what you want.”

“Sure,” Hawke said, leaning back in his cot and putting his hands

behind his head.

Now Will wished for something else. He wished that a pose like

that didn’t lift Hawke’s T-shirt up enough that he caught sight of the
muscle on his stomach. The man was very beautiful, and nothing like
the scrawny child Will remembered.

He wondered if Hawke would still have the scars in his neck from

the monthly bleedings.

He felt instantly ashamed for thinking such a thing, and he

banished the idea from his head.

“What were you doing out there? So far away from the house?”

Hawke asked after another period of silence.

Will sighed. “You know what I was doing.”
“Yeah, but.” Hawke sat up again and regarded him. “You were

running away from your family. Your blood. I thought that was
important to vampires.”

“Not all vampires think it’s worth being married off for.”
“What?”
Will rolled his eyes. He rubbed his wrists a little more. The

healing energy was becoming stronger as his hands mended. Provided
he still had some of that energy left, he should definitely be able to do
something for Hawke’s mother. Maybe.

“My parents were arranging for me to be married into another

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vampire nest. I am a younger son, so my presence would have hardly
been missed, and the family had an even larger slave den, and was
wealthy enough in their blood supply that they could even sell it,
while still maintaining a comfortable enough amount for themselves.”

“Sounds like the perfect setup. Why run from something like

that?” Hawke asked.

“I know that it was many years ago, but I would have hoped that

saving your life would have been enough to show you that I am not
like other vampires. I don’t approve of slavery, regardless of what
your species has done.”

That was apparently the wrong thing to say. Hawke shot up from

his cot and was on his feet, fists clenched and body trembling. “What
my species did?” he all but yelled. Will suspected that the only reason
he was even attempting to keep his temper in check was to keep from
scaring the animals, few that there were in this barn.

Will could not back down on this. “Our history texts state very

plainly―”

“I know what your worthless texts say,” Hawke cut him off. “I

was brought into your estate and raised a slave so young I can’t even
remember the face of my real mother. We were all taught about that
garbage you vampires pass off as history.”

“How do you know if it’s garbage?” Will asked. “You humans

have such short life spans, but some of my kind who were around
before the first bomb dropped are still alive today. They tell the
stories.”

The story about how humans first discovered the existence of

paranormal creatures just over four hundred years ago, how the
paranormals, vampires, werewolves, warlocks, mages, ghosts, and
then later the fae, had all tried their best to make peace.

It ended in a civil war for every country on Earth. Some

paranormals had gone so far as to take themselves out of the human
society once more, creating whole cities where vampires and
werewolves and other creatures lived in peace.

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Bombs had been dropped on these cities, and then when the

paranormals decided to fight back, bigger bombs had been dropped.

What happened was the destruction of the known world, and the

building of an entirely new one.

Vampires had taken the land to the East, a lot of it, while

werewolves had claimed a small patch of their own in the West. The
South was mostly considered to be territory for the warlocks and
mages, though it was said that they would welcome anyone, so long
as there was some magical talent.

The North was a wasteland. A giant graveyard where the ghosts

roamed. Only mediums and the fae dared to go into that place. Will
would have gone to live with the mages, if he’d been able to make it
that far.

All of this was just what was happening on the lands that were

formerly the Americas. He wasn’t sure how the rest of the world was
dealing with this.

“I’m not arguing this point with a vampire,” Hawke said. “Try to

sleep or don’t. I can stay awake long enough to watch you so it
doesn’t matter, but I will be bringing you to see my mother early
tomorrow.”

“I look forward to it. Then maybe you will see that I’m not the

monster slaver that other vampires can be. You seem to have
forgotten it.”

Hawke crossed his arms and put out the lamp. Will could see

perfectly well in the dark, and he noted with an eerie sort of awe the
way Hawke’s eyes remained firmly on him, even in what should have
been a blinding darkness for a human.

Hawke could see him, as clearly as Will could. He really would

watch him the whole night if he decided not to sleep. Vampires
usually preferred to stay awake during the dark hours, but even with
all the time he’d spent passed out over Hawke’s shoulder, Will
thought he could use a nap. With the man here, guarding him, and
protecting him, it might be one of the last peaceful sleeps he ever got

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while he was in this village.

As he turned over and made himself comfortable in the hay, he

still felt the burn of Hawke’s stare on his back. The man would watch
him long after Will fell asleep, he was sure, but at least he’d given
him something to think about, if he was really planning on spending
most of the night awake and staring.

His Enemy Lover

Chapter Six

Hawke woke before the sun rose, and was stunned to see that the

vampire, Will, was already awake. He was sitting in the pen, knees up
and hands folded around his ankles, regarding him curiously.

“How long were you awake for?” Hawke asked, fully awake at

the thought that he’d been sleeping unguarded in front of the enemy
like that.

“About an hour. I slept as much as I could, but I’m used to

sleeping during the day.”

An hour. The thought made Hawke’s stomach churn. He was

excellent at tying ropes and knots, but with an hour unsupervised,
Will should have been able to free himself from the makeshift collar
around his neck, chew through the rope, anything. He could have
killed Hawke if he really wanted to or escaped before Hawke noticed.
Instead he’d stayed.

He was either incredibly stupid, too trusting, or both. Hawke

certainly would never have passed up the opportunity for freedom, but
that was just one more difference in the way they were brought up.
Will did not yet truly fear the humans he was with, regardless of what
had nearly happened to him last night.

“Yes, well,” Hawke said, getting up and out of his cot. He

stretched his hands about his head, listening for the satisfying pop in
his lower back, and then lit the lamp. “Thanks for not killing me in
my sleep. I’m assuming you have enough energy in you to see to my
mother now?”

Will held his hands up a bit and looked down at them as a soft

blue light, so pale it was nearly white, encased his hands. As quickly

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as the light was there, it vanished. “As ready as I’ll ever be,” he said,
his voice sounding off. Maybe he was sick from spending the night in
a barn. He was raised to be used to better accommodations than this.

Of course, at one time, even Hawke had known better living than

this. The slaves were mistreated, but they didn’t sleep in barns with
the animals. Some of them did, but not all. That was only because it
wouldn’t do to have a filthy slave serving a master his breakfast with
hay in his hair. In a strange way, Hawke had been lucky like that.
He’d been a server, and a feeder, so he got to sleep in the main house.
The servers were treated reasonably well. The men and woman who
took care of the animals, for the vampires who owned stables, and the
cars, that was an entirely different story.

Hawke shook the thought from his head. What a stupid thing to be

thinking about. It didn’t matter if Hawke got a clean attic room that
was warm to share with the other boys. They had still been slaves.
Allowed to own no property, sold and bought as the vampires saw fit,
and even killed when mistakes were made.

Just because Hawke had been one of the lucky few to be able to

avoid all of that did not mean he should be thinking upon any small
kindnesses warmly, or about the boy vampire who used to sneak him
food while Hawke hid under the table, like a dog.

Did Will remember that?
Hawke untied the knot at Will’s neck, but he made sure the other

man could see the knife at his hip as they walked out of the barn.

“How did you do that so fast? I couldn’t even get it loose.”
Hawke glared at him as Will rubbed his neck. It seemed that just

because the rope had not been tight, did not mean that it didn’t itch.
“You were trying to escape?”

“No, but I did want to test out what you’d done,” Will said. From

the sound of his voice, one would think that he wasn’t aware of how
close to trouble he’d come with a revelation like that.

If those other idiots from last night had been escorting him when

he’d said something like that, they would have made him pay for it.

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Hawke sighed and shook his head. “I’m good with knots. That’s

all you need to know.”

“Okay,” Will said. God, did he have to be so trusting? “Is this it?”
The main house where Brian and Felicia lived was close to the

barn. It took less than a minute to walk there. The sun was not yet
over the horizon, but it was no longer pitch-dark. It was coming, and
some of the farmhands were awake and moving about, seeing to their
chores and the animals.

Hawke got a lot of strange looks from people as they passed by,

and he was aware of the way Will inched closer to him.

So he was aware of the danger he was in after all. “I won’t let

them hurt you,” he said.

“Can we just get inside? It’s starting to get hot out here.”
Hawke thought it was still a little chilly, but he wasn’t a vampire.
He didn’t see Hank or Carl or that other kid they’d roped into

tagging along with them. Which was good. Vaughn was walking
around with his pack of hounds, and he waved a friendly smile, letting
Hawke know that he wasn’t aware of what had happened the previous
night. Anderson was limping around his house, likely getting set up to
work early repairing the metal frames for their carts and the one truck
that was in the village.

Everything looked normal.
“Let’s go,” Hawke said, opening the door and letting them both

inside before others came out of their houses and noticed there was a
vampire walking around.

A couple of people stopping in their tracks was one thing, so long

as Hawke was there, but he didn’t want the whole village muttering
about this just yet.

Will was as polite as could be when he entered Hawke’s parents’

house. He took his shoes off at the door and followed him across the
small kitchen to the bedroom in only his socks.

Hawke grimaced at the sight of the dirt even on them. They both

needed a bath and a change of clothes.

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The thought of that, of Will, naked and relaxing in one of the

wooden tubs that was shared by the village, should not have made his
blood rush the way it did. Especially since Hawke would have to be
there watching him. For protection.

“Brian?” he called, again, making his voice low with just enough

strength to travel as he walked through the small house.

His father heard his call and appeared through the door. He looked

like he hadn’t slept all night. The sight of Will, unchained and
walking in his socks beside him didn’t even seem to make the man
worry.

“I was thinking about going and getting you for the last hour. Her

breathing is getting weaker,” he said, reaching for Will, gently taking
him by the arm, and he hurried as he led him into his bedroom.

Hawke watched that with a sad grimace. His father, who hated

vampires more than anything else in the world, eagerly leading one
into the room where his ill wife lay dying. It must be getting
desperate.

The lamps inside were lit, and against his better judgment, Hawke

stood back while Will moved to the other side of the bed. Brian
stayed on one side, clutching Felicia’s small, pale hand. Hawke could
see the blue veins under her paper-thin skin.

She wasn’t awake, and her breathing did sound painful, like it was

scratching the inside of her throat just to be able to do it.

“Can you help her?” Brian asked.
Will frowned as he stared down at the woman in bed. “I don’t

know. I can tell what’s wrong with her, but I don’t know the name for
it. It’s her lungs. The damp weather has taken its toll over the years.”

The fact that Will couldn’t diagnose the problem by name made

Hawke suspicious. “You’re a healer mage. Why can’t you tell what it
is?”

“I have the natural magic for it, but I’ve never been permitted to

study it. My family wouldn’t allow it. Is there a place where I can
wash my hands?” he asked, rolling up his sleeves.

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Hawke wanted to yell at him to just get on with it, clean hands or

not, but Brian was quick to give him the order to get a bowl of water.

Hawke rushed to do as he was told only to speed along the

process.

Clean water was kept in plastic jugs in the cupboards under the

counter. It came from the well that had been dug, and was routinely
pumped, boiled, and then put away in containers like these in all the
houses. Hawke grabbed a salad bowl and poured the water inside. He
took a bar of soap and a rag with him when he came back into the
bedroom.

It smelled stuffy in here, he realized, compared to the rest of the

house, or even the air outside. Will was speaking with his father when
he came back into the room.

“I assume she told you about pain in her chest?”
“Yeah, she has been complaining about trouble breathing for the

last several years, but it only got especially worse last winter. Before
that I thought she just had some mild asthma.”

“I’m sensing that in there as well. It could only have made this

worse.”

“Here’s your water,” Hawke said, setting the bowl down on the

nightstand. He watched as Will went quickly to it and started to wash
his hands, his individual fingers, and almost all the way up to his
elbows.”

“Is that really necessary?” Hawke asked.
Will sent him an annoyed glance over his shoulder. “I haven’t

bathed in days and slept in a barn last night. Do you really think I
should put my dirty hands on a sick woman? Even I know better than
that and I’m not a trained physician.”

“It’s fine,” Brian said. “Do whatever you can.”
He would be devastated if Felicia didn’t pull through. He might

also kill Will in a blind rage that was hiding beneath the surface.
Hawke wouldn’t be able to protect him from that.

Will made quick work of his wash, and then he dried his hands on

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the rag before returning to Felicia’s side. He pulled the heavy blankets
down off of her chest, and then blushed and looked at Brian. “Would
you be so kind as to…” He trailed off and motioned to the buttons on
her damp nightshirt, then looked away.

Brian didn’t even question him. Hawke worried that he might

have to look at his mother’s naked chest, but Brian only opened the
nightgown enough so that the area between her breasts was exposed,
and then he fanned it out enough so that her stomach was also
revealed.

She was so much thinner than Hawke remembered.
“Thank you,” Will said, turning back to his patient. Only then did

he put his hands on her.

Hawke remembered those hands so very well. The way they had

glowed when Will had touched him, and the soothing sensations he’d
felt, the coolness of it, when the burning pain had been replaced by
health and vitality. Even his hunger had been sated.

“What are you doing?” Brian asked when Will’s hands started to

glow, though he didn’t look like he was getting ready to step in just
yet.

“This is what I use to find injuries that aren’t obvious. I did this

with Hawke, too, that day, and found some internal bleeding. For her,
I can sense all of it in her lungs. There’s water there, but I don’t know
how it got there. The weather hasn’t been making it better, and she’s
got a little something else growing inside. Lumps. Lots of little lumps
are in her lungs.”

Brian sucked in a breath, and Hawke’s heart hammered as he

rubbed his jaw. His and his father’s eyes met.

Lumps. That usually meant cancer, and with so many…could Will

even heal something like that?

The richest human villages could only make sure that all their

houses had running water, and maybe more than one truck and some
horses. None that Hawke had ever heard of or seen would have the
resources to treat a patient with cancer. None of them had even been

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able to tell what was wrong with Felicia whenever Ben had managed
to convince a healer to make the dangerous trip for a visit.

“Is there anything you can do for it?” Brian asked. He had tears

streaming down his worn face, as though he was already sure of the
answer he would get. Hawke had never seen the man cry before.

“I’ll try,” Will said.
Not for the first time, Hawke was struck with the realization that if

Will was only doing this for his own sake, he would be lying through
his teeth, and not giving such honest and not entirely hopeful answers.

The glow around his hands became brighter, brighter than even

what Hawke remembered as he trailed his hands up and down her
stomach and chest, noticeably avoiding her breasts. He let his fingers
drift across her prominent ribs, and then her throat, before returning to
her chest. His hands stayed there the longest.

Brian did not let go of his wife’s hand once.
Hawke timed it. An hour went by before Will pulled his hands

away and stumbled back, exhausted. With the light of his hands gone,
all that was left was the pale orange coming from the lamps. The
windows had been shut up, so there was no natural light to come into
the room, both for Will’s sake and Felicia’s.

The improvement in her color was noticeable nonetheless, as was

the fact that it was much quieter in here than it had been when the
three men entered the room.

Brian put his shaking fingers under her nose, and then he sank to

his knees next to the bed, holding her hand tightly in his.

Hawke could see the gentle rise and fall of her chest. She was

alive. There was an improvement in her condition. She would live.

“Thank you,” Hawke said right away, not taking his eyes off of

his adoptive parents.

“I’ll need to keep seeing her. I had to leave some of the lumps

behind. I couldn’t pour all of my energy into her without passing out.”

“How many more times?” Brian asked, lifting his face from the

bed. His cheeks were still wet, but he hardly seemed to mind that he

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was showing this kind of weakness in front of another person, even as
he wiped away the tears with the palm of his hand.

Will shrugged. “Can’t be more than two or three more times. But

I’m pretty sure I can get the rest out in one more go. The other
sessions are just to be safe.”

Brian nodded. “Thank you. Thank you for this. I can’t release you

now, but I will repay you for this.”

“You’re welcome. I know you can’t let me go yet, but, ah, so long

as you do, and that no other farmhands want to pay me a visit, I
promise I’ll be a well-behaved guest.”

Brian nodded. “Hawke will stay with you. You’ll have to stay in

the barn until this is over, but only because there’s no other place to
put a vampire. I’ll get a bed ready for you, and when the boys come
back from their next hunt, I’ll make sure they save the blood of the
animals.”

Will just nodded and smiled politely, as though he really was just

a guest in another rich vampire’s house, and that no one here meant
him any harm.

“I’ll make sure to stay with you, too. I won’t leave like before. I

don’t trust that one of the other men might not try something,” Hawke
said without thinking.

He wouldn’t look at Will when the vampire turned suddenly to

him.

Brian nodded, agreeing with the decision. “That’s fine. Is she safe

to be by herself now? Do you need to be here?”

“No, I don’t think so, but you can call me back if you think there’s

a problem.”

Brian nodded and sat beside his wife, stroking her hand. Hawke

wouldn’t be surprised if she woke up today and wanted to go for a
walk. He hoped to be around when that happened.

He had to grab a spare blanket out of the closet to put over Will

when he walked him back to the barn, but the whole time he had
thoughts and ideas swirling around his head that, until yesterday, had

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never been there before, and he wasn’t sure if he liked them.

Marcy Jacks

Chapter Seven

Will needed to drink some more from one of the blood bags after

they returned from Hawke’s house. He polished it off and began
sipping on the other, trying to save it, but unable to stop himself from
taking just one more tiny drink.

“Does healing really take that much out of you?” Hawke asked.

He’d allowed Will to sit on his cot this time, instead of the bed of hay
in the stall, and Hawke was sitting next to him.

Will pulled his teeth and lips away from the bag and wiped his

mouth, certain that even a compassionate man like Hawke would not
appreciate seeing blood on a vampire’s lips.

“Not usually, but the last time I ever did anything remotely that

big was you.”

He noted the way Hawke turned away and fiddled with his hands.

Very odd for such a sure man.

“Was what you said true? I had internal bleeding? Not just a

broken leg?”

Now Will was able to pull his mouth away from the bag. He took

the water skin that Hawke had brought with them and took a long
drink from it, hoping that would get the blood off of his teeth and
gums as well. Hawke hated vampires, and Will wanted to remind the
man of what he was as little as possible.

“I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but yes. I thought it was just

your blood pulsing through your veins, but there was something off
about it, about how it didn’t flow the way the rest of your blood did.
Maybe that was why I focused some of my energy onto it. Later when
I realized what it was, when I was older, I hoped I’d done enough so

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that you didn’t just bleed out somewhere in the woods. I was tired
after that. Drank more than my share of blood for the day. Father
wasn’t happy with me for that one.”

Will blushed and looked away, realizing what he’d said and how

Hawke would interpret his words. Where else would he get the blood
but from a human slave?

So much for not bringing up his vampire status.
Hawke said nothing. He seemed intent on staring at Will, when he

wasn’t checking on the animals, or turning away curious villagers
who knocked on the barn doors, that is.

He was protecting him, a vampire, and a former member of the

house that had him as a slave. He was warmed by it. It didn’t help at
all with his attraction to him.

“How did you get a broken leg and internal bleeding anyway? Did

you jump out one of the windows?”

“Actually, yes,” Hawke replied.
Will flinched, but he could not look away from the other man. “I

am sorry for what my family has done to you. For what they do to all
humans. It’s not right, punishing the men of today simply because of
what your ancestors, uh, allegedly did,” he said, still hoping to keep
the peace on that subject.

Hawke didn’t so much as glare at him, for which he was glad. “I

suppose this all explains why you have a different mindset from other
vampires,” Hawke said. “You let me go, fed me when I otherwise
would have starved, healed my mother, and then ran away from your
nest.”

“Yes,” Will said. So Hawke did remember that day under the

table. Will had been sitting with his family, enjoying their evening
breakfast meal when his foot touched on something that should not
have been there. When he looked under the cloth, there was Hawke,
hiding and shaking with terror.

Will hadn’t known why a servant would be hiding under the table

at the time. It wasn’t until years later when he realized what the boy

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had been there for. He’d been trying to steal food before the masters
of the house came in, and instead of taking his whipping, he’d hidden
away beneath the table, the only hiding place in the room.

Will had snuck him toast and bacon.
Hawke released a choked sort of laugh. “You’re making this very

difficult for me, you know.”

Will blinked at him. “Making what difficult?”
“Just, the way you are. You don’t have enough fear of us,

considering what we’re doing to you. You trust us too much, which
makes me worry about your survival instincts, especially with the
meager belongings you packed away, and now I have to deal with the
fact that―” Hawke stopped himself, then he looked away and stood
up from his cot. He began pacing around the stalls.

The cows continued to eat their food, watching the two men in the

barn with little to no interest, as though Hawke did not appear
completely conflicted.

Will could hardly believe it, but he knew it to be true the second

the scent hit his nose.

“Are you in lust with me?”
Unbelievable, how could he have not noticed it before? Or was

this something more recent?

“It doesn’t matter. Nothing’s going to come of it,” Hawke said,

his mouth twisting, almost as though the fact disappointed him.

“Why not?” William asked before he could stop himself.
Hawke froze on the spot, then stared at him hard with those deep

blue eyes that seemed so much more intense than they had previously.
“Did you really just say that? Do you know what you’re suggesting?”

Will glared at him. “I’m not a child, no matter what my parents

think. I know what I’m suggesting, and now that I’ve noticed it, I
can’t ignore the way your blood is calling to me.”

Hawke’s face twisted with outrage.
“Not to drink. You clearly don’t know this, but blood and

heartbeats can tell a lot about what a person is feeling or wanting.

His Enemy Lover

Yours is rushing, and it smells hot. Your heart is beating fast and now
you’re all that I can think about.”

“It doesn’t matter.”
“I’m attracted to you, too, you know. Maybe it’s our history and

this weird relationship we have that makes me trust you even when I
shouldn’t, but if you want me, then I won’t lie and say that I don’t
want you either.”

“I’m not sleeping with a vampire. You could bite me, or attack

me.”

“Put me on my stomach then, or on my knees.”
He noted the way the barn seemed to heat up with the thick smell

of Hawke’s lust and hot, pumping blood. It rushed to his cheeks, as
though trying to escape it.

“I am curious about what you would taste like after all this time,

but I would never bite you if that’s something you didn’t want.”

“I don’t want it,” Hawke said, shaking his head and taking a step

back.

“I believe you. Clearly you don’t want a pair of fangs in your neck

or thighs, but you still want me. You can’t hide that.”

Hawke didn’t take another step back. He was still staring at Will

curiously.

“You could still attack me,” he said after a time. “Regardless of

whether or not you’re on your knees.”

“Tie me up then,” Will said. All this talk of sex, and how close he

was to the man who seemed to want him the most, only made Will
more aware of his own growing desires. His body was pulsing with
Hawke’s. His cock ached, and there was no way in hell he would able
to stand it if Hawke denied him and sent him back to the clump of hay
that was his bed to be alone. He wouldn’t be able to handle the
embarrassment of wrapping his fist around his throbbing dick and
stroking himself while Hawke lay in his cot barely more than ten feet
away.

He’d do it, though. He’d have to. There would be no way he could

Marcy Jacks

ignore what was between his legs. His erection wasn’t going away
until he dealt with it. Or until Hawke did.

“You would let me…?” Hawke’s jaw dropped. His lips twisted in

a crooked grin as he shook his head. “You’re either a lot more naive
than I thought, or you’re just plain stupid.”

Will frowned. “What?”
“You’re a prisoner here, and you would be perfectly fine with

allowing me to tie you up and have sex with you? What if I turned on
you? There would be nothing you could do about it.” He stopped
talking for a second, as though something were occurring to him.
“And what about your wrists? What about blood flow and all that?”

“It won’t matter so long as you don’t leave me like that for several

hours, and I like the idea of being tied up. I want you, and you want
me, and I trust that you won’t let anyone else come in here and try to
hurt me while I’m, uh…” Will blushed and didn’t finish.

His blood was thrumming through his veins. He was starting to

get twitchy and angry with Hawke’s indecisiveness. He just wanted
an answer here. Yes or no.

“You wouldn’t be forcing me to do anything, and I like the

thought of you tying me down, doing whatever you want to me.”

Hawke was already blushing, but his face got brighter, and the

color travelled all the way into his neck and ears. It was working.
What Will was saying was making Hawke want him even more than
he did now.

“Admit that you like the idea, too. You want to see me naked with

my hands above my head, beneath you, legs spread.”

“And here I pegged you for some kind of virgin.”
Will scowled at him. He didn’t really give off that vibe, did he?

“Come over here and I’ll show you virgin.”

Will stood up, and he waited for Hawke to make the next move.

* * * *

His Enemy Lover

Hawke didn’t have to look very far to find the ropes that had been

used on Will the first night he was here. They were still clean, and he
was glad when no distaste showed up on Will’s face when Hawke
grabbed them.

He wouldn’t mind wearing them again, it seemed.
“Lie down,” Hawke commanded. “Take off your shirt first,” he

added.

He would’ve liked to do that part himself, but unless he was

planning on pulling his knife out and cutting the material off of him, it
wouldn’t work out.

That, and he was pretty sure Will wouldn’t appreciate having a

knife anywhere near him while they were doing this, regardless of
how much he claimed to trust Hawke.

Will did as he was told, unbuttoning the silk material and letting it

slide from his shoulders. Hawke had felt his body during the two-day
journey back to the village, but now that he was seeing the pale skin
for himself…if anything it made his heart and lungs speed up even
more. The sudden head rush he got and the throbbing in between his
legs was delicious. He wanted to put his mouth on Will’s skin. He
wanted to taste the man.

“Like what you see?” Will asked, a catty smile on his lips.
“Yes,” Hawke said, seeing no reason to lie or play coy about it.

His attraction to Will, which before now had been mostly made up of
mild curiosity, flared to life. He’d just crossed the point of no return.
“You’re doing very badly on the lying down part,” he admonished.

Will smiled and raised his hands a little. “Right, right. Sorry.

Getting right to it.”

He turned around and lay on his stomach on the cot, then reached

above him to the metal frame and gripped it.

“Here all right?” he asked, referring to the position of his hands.
Hawke grimaced at the sight. It was still sexy as hell, seeing this

vampire, who used to be a former master, putting himself in a
vulnerable position for Hawke to take, but there was also something

Marcy Jacks

unnerving about it. He didn’t want to hold that kind of power over
Will. He didn’t want to take him like this, without seeing his face
while he was tied up on a cot.

It wasn’t like Hawke hadn’t ever taken lovers from behind before,

but none of them had been tied up. Some of his arousal actually left
him, the more he thought about it.

“That’s not going to work, now that I think about it. Turn around.”
Will looked over his shoulder at him, clearly not understanding

what the sudden change of heart was about, but he did as he was told
anyway, exposing his naked chest and the growing bulge that was
beneath his pants.

Hawke’s blood hummed again at the sight. That was better.
“I’m still going to tie your hands,” he said, but it wouldn’t be so

bad because at least this way Hawke would be able to see him. He
would be able to tell if Will was getting uncomfortable, or wanted to
change his mind. “Let me know if it gets to be too tight.”

Will nodded, and Hawke wrapped the ropes around his wrists

before lifting them and tying them off to the metal frame.

He watched Will’s face intently as he did this, searching for any

outward sign that he’d changed his mind, and that he didn’t want to
do this anymore.

Hawke fully expected it, but it didn’t come. Will even smiled a

little and looked up at Hawke’s handiwork, tugging his arms gently to
test out the knots when Hawke finished. “You’re good at this.”

“Why do I get the sudden feeling that you’ve let others do this to

you before?”

Now Will’s grin was the kind that said he’d been caught with his

hand in the cookie jar. “Guilty. It’s actually very nice. I should try it
on you one day.”

Hawke felt his already warm face go incredibly hot. Will’s cheeks

were splashed with pink color, as though realizing what he’d just said.

Implying that this could go even further than it already had. That

was dangerous. Would Will even want to stay? Would the villagers

His Enemy Lover

allow it?

Hawke allowed his hands to travel up the muscles of Will’s chest,

letting his fingertips move over the ridges and brush against his hard
nipples. Will shuddered and inhaled a sharp breath at the touch, and
his back arched into it just a little.

Hawke would’ve had to be blind to not see the way that pale skin

went flush under his touch. It was strange, the way it seemed to
follow his hands. He moved his fingers down to Will’s pants and let
them curl under the waistband before pulling away. He stroked his
palms down Will’s thighs and then ghosted a hand over his swollen
crotch. The entire time, Hawke made sure to look at the vampire’s
expression.

Will groaned and bit his lip. He was looking at Hawke’s hands,

waiting to see what he would do. After the third stroke over his still-
clothed cock, Will looked up at him, annoyance flashing over his
features when he realized that Hawke was teasing him on purpose.

“Will you get these pants off of me already?” he demanded,

shifting his hips, but with Hawke sitting on his legs, there wasn’t
much he could do.

Vampires were strong and everything, but they weren’t that

strong. Hawke would have him here, and he would do whatever he
wanted to him, for as long as he wanted, and Will had given him
permission to do it.

“You think getting them off you means I’ll let you come any

faster?”

Hawke felt Will’s whole body shiver beneath him as he stared up

at him with those wide amber eyes.

Hawke shook his head. “This would’ve been so much easier to

avoid if you were ugly or something. Why did you have to grow up to
be so damn gorgeous?” Hawke asked, pulling the button and zipper
down on Will’s pants and slowly shifting the material down. He
didn’t take them all the way off. He wasn’t ready to move from his
warm spot on Will’s lap so that he could get the jeans down his legs.

Marcy Jacks

“Oh? Think I’m good looking, do you?”
“I’d have to be an idiot to not notice it,” Hawke said.
“Shallow,” Will replied, but he hardly seemed to mind as his

mouth fell open and his head dropped back onto the cot as Hawke
took his cock in hand. He was cut, and at the head there was a drop of
cum building at the slit.

Hawke had his trysts with men before. He tried not to have any

relationships inside of the village. It was too small, and he didn’t want
to be the village whore, so unless there were visitors from another
village, or Hawke had to go travelling, he kept mostly to himself.

One man had licked away his pre-cum that had been building on

his dick, much the same way Will’s was doing now. Hawke dropped
his head and gave it a try, if only to see what sort of reaction he would
get.

Will shifted his hips, canting forward, trying to thrust against his

hand and mouth. “You are such a fucking tease,” he complained.

Hawke pulled his mouth away and smiled up at him, feeling

entirely like the predator Will had told him he was. “What sort of
jailor would I be if I didn’t torture my prisoner just a little?”

“Evil, evil jailor,” Will said through panting breaths, and then he

did nothing but moan when Hawke bent down and put the whole head
of his cock inside of his mouth.

He had to admit, there was something about doing this to a

vampire that got his adrenaline going, and the fact that they’d
somehow managed to turn the actual situation they were in into a
roleplaying sex game only made Hawke want the man even more.

He was wearing entirely too many clothes.
Will cried out in what could have been despair when Hawke

pulled his mouth away. “Don’t you worry,” he said, planting a kiss on
his thigh. “Not going anywhere.”

Will nodded as Hawke pulled himself out of his shirt and began

fiddling with the button and fly of his own jeans. He kicked them off,
and when he had so much more bare skin on top of the man, he began

His Enemy Lover

to tremble.

This was very nice.
Hawke hesitated when he started to pull at the fingerless gloves he

wore. The infinity symbol was only tattooed on his right hand, and he
wasn’t sure he wanted Will to see it.

“I know it’s there,” the other man said, completely ruining his

hopes of keeping bad memories out of their bed. “Are you mad at me
for it?”

“You didn’t put it there,” Hawke said, and just because he didn’t

want to look like he was having some kind of issue with it, he took his
gloves off, revealing the tattoo on the back of his right hand.

The infinity tattoo was put on all the slaves. It marked them as

what they were and reminded them that they would be serving
vampires for all of eternity. Because humans didn’t live forever like
vampires almost did, it was sort of a stupid thing to put on a mortal,
but that wasn’t the point.

With his hands now bare, Hawke began stroking Will’s cock once

more, noting the difference in texture now that he could actually feel
the swollen prick in his palm, and the bulging veins on its underside.

“Put my cock in your mouth. Suck me,” Will commanded,

apparently forgetting all about the guilt he felt over Hawke’s slave
tattoo.

Hawke wasn’t about to have any of that bossiness. “Say please,”

he said, and just to be an even bigger tease, he trailed his tongue up
the underside of Will’s thick and heavy dick, watching the man’s eyes
go wide as he did so, and then as they squeezed tightly shut when he
began playing with the strip of flesh just under the head of his prick.

“Urgh! Why are you even doing this? Someone could walk in at

any minute, you know?” Will said.

“They could, which means that if you want this to go somewhere,

you’d better hurry up and say please.”

“You’re enjoying this way too much. All right, fine, please!

Please!”

Marcy Jacks

“Please what?”
“I’m going to kill you when I get out of here.”
Those words should have put him on edge, considering what they

were to each other but they didn’t. Hawke recognized the empty
threat for what it was, and it pleased him that he could make Will this
out of control. He’d known Will since he was a child, after all. There
was no way the boy who’d fed him or healed him would mean
something like that.

“Not what I wanted to hear,” Hawke said, and just to be a bastard,

he sank his mouth sound around the entire length of Will’s prick,
contorted his mouth in one long suck, and then pulled away.

“I’m actually really liking that you suggested tying you up. I can

see the appeal.”

Will was panting hard. Hawke couldn’t tell if the man had even

heard his words. “Please, Hawke, put your lips around my dick and
suck me. I want you to blow me, please.”

“Much better,” Hawke said, and then he lowered his mouth back

around Will’s prick. It was becoming a little discolored. Maybe he’d
been a little too cruel in his teasing.

Will didn’t seem to mind it that much at the moment now that he

was finally getting what he wanted. He kept shifting his hips, trying to
hump into Hawke’s willing mouth. Occasionally, Hawke would look
up and see Will staring down at him, his mouth open and his chest
rising and falling as he struggled to keep control of himself.

“You’re so good. That’s so nice. Keep doing that. So fucking

good,” Will said, and then continued to let out a string of
compliments as Hawke wrapped his tongue around the base of Will’s
prick.

Hawke reached for Will’s testicles, and found them drawn up and

tight. The man was close, and only when he began thrashing around
in ecstasy did Hawke quickly grab the base of his cock and give just
enough of a squeeze to prevent an orgasm.

Will moaned and continued to jerk around on the cot, unable to

His Enemy Lover

come but still lost in pleasure.

“What are you doing? Let go! Let me come!”
He was being too loud. Someone might hear him and then they

would both be out of luck. Hawke gripped Will by the hip, keeping
his other hand still firmly on the man’s prick.

He dug his fingers into the tight flesh so hard that he hoped the

pain would be enough to center the man and stop him from yelling out
like that. “Not until I’m inside you. Understand?”

“Oh God, you’re so mean,” Will complained.
His mouth was still open. Hawke’s eyes were continually drawn

to his lips. They were pink and plump and looked so amazingly soft.
He wanted to kiss them, but every time Will spoke or panted or let his
jaw fall like that, Hawke was given a view of those fangs, and a
reminder of why kissing was still a bad idea, no matter how much
they were both enjoying this right now.

Hawke put the thought away. No kissing, but they would need

something else if they were to get this show on the road, and all of
Will’s moaning and thrashing had taken its toll on Hawke. His body
felt like it was on vibrate and his cock was throbbing almost painfully,
and if he stayed on top of Will any longer while he was thrusting
mindlessly against him, he was going to be in danger of coming, too.

“Where are you going?” Will asked when Hawke got off his legs.
Hawke stood straight and stretched out his legs, feeling his knees

pop. The way he’d been positioned on top of Will on his small cot had
not been comfortable, but he’d barely noticed the building pain with
what they were doing.

“We’ll need something to ease the way,” he said, moving to his

own bag of supplies and searching around through it.

“You keep lube with you all the time?” Will asked, his voice still

deliciously deep and aroused.

Hawke sent him a half-hearted glare over his shoulder. The little

shit actually smiled back at him. He looked so sexy like that.
Smirking like he had all the control in the world while tied up to

Marcy Jacks

Hawke’s cot.

“No, but I have something that will be just as good,” he said,

pulling out a jar of salve.

“What is that?” Will asked.
The jar was handcrafted and made out of wood. It had no labels

on it, and only the carving of the leaf on the dark wooden lid gave any
indication of what was inside.

“A health salve. It’s basically the same thing I put on your hands.

I did a job for some mages a while back and part of their payment was
to give our village loads of the stuff. Good for rashes, minor cuts and
scrapes, that sort of thing. It’s also slick as hell.”

That knowing smile never left Will’s face, though now his eyes

were moving between the jar and Hawke’s face. “You’ve been using
it to touch yourself, haven’t you?”

“Purely for curiosity’s sake, and it worked well enough, so I keep

it with me. Pretty valuable, having something like this that has so
many uses.”

Will made a noise of agreement as Hawke set the jar down beside

his stomach, and then started to pull away the pants that were still
around his knees.

He didn’t tie up Will’s legs, he realized at the last second. He

should have thought to do that, but Will was not making any sudden
movements, and aside from lifting his feet to help Hawke get his jeans
off, he wasn’t making any movements that suggested he was trying to
attack or escape. He was just staring up at him, waiting and eager.
Hawke definitely couldn’t tie his feet down anyway. He wouldn’t be
able to do it without making it completely uncomfortable to do what
he was about to do.

An epiphany came to him right then as he stared down at his soon-

to-be lover. When they did this, because there was no way he was
turning back now, nothing would ever be the same between them.

“What is it?” Will asked.
Apparently, he’d been standing there, looking down at him for too

His Enemy Lover

long.

“Nothing,” Hawke said, and he reached for the jar and put his

knees back onto the cot.

Marcy Jacks

Chapter Eight

Will shivered at the sensation of cold and slick lubricant, or what

Hawke was using as lubricant, being smeared and rubbed against his
asshole. It took a second before it warmed up on his skin, and when it
did, he sighed. He’d lifted his knees up and spread his legs wider, and
now Hawke’s fingertips weren’t just touching him, they were sinking
inside him, preparing him, and all the while the other man had a look
of absolute, beautiful concentration on his face.

It was lovely as fucking hell.
“Bet you never thought you’d be in bed with a vampire,” Will

said.

Hawke’s wolfish grin never left his face. Maybe he should have

named himself after the wolves instead. It would have been so much
more fitting.

“Bet you never thought you’d be in bed with a human.”
“You got me there,” Will said, panting as the sensation of those

fingers inside of him got to be too much.

Hawke hooked his fingers inside of him, searching for his

prostate, and then like a tracker dog he found it. Will’s eyes flew wide
and for a split second he couldn’t see as he turned his face against his
arm and bit down on his skin. Not hard enough to break the flesh, but
it did stifle his moan and help to center him.

Hawke had mentioned the possibility of other hired hands coming

in here if there was too much noise, and there was no way Will was
taking the risk of this being interrupted.

He was just starting to really wish the man would hurry up. He

was apparently one of the few in the world who had some real

His Enemy Lover

patience when it came to his lovemaking, but then he felt the fingers
gently pull out and the blunt head of Hawke’s dick pressing against
his pucker.

“Ready?” Hawke asked, shifting into a more comfortable position.
“If you wait any longer, I will have to start making a serious effort

to get out of these ropes, and then I’ll have to ravish you.”

“We’ll try that later. I seriously doubt you can get free of any

ropes I’ve tied.”

Smug prick. “Just―”
He didn’t get the chance to finish what he was about to say as

Hawke pushed forward, sinking himself inside of Will.

It had been way too long since he’d done this. The wonderful

burn, and the sheer fucking pleasure of it was so much that he nearly
came like he was still eighteen.

Hawke must have seen this, because he reached down and took

hold of his cock, gripping it at the base as he held still and stared
down at him.

“Do you have a hair trigger in there or what?”
Will’s body was bowstring tight, and he glared up at Hawke, not

daring to move or say anything just in case that would be enough to
make him come.

Hawke gripped him, but that apparently was not enough to keep

himself from moving for very long. He started to slowly cant his hips.
He bit his lips together and moaned softly as his eyes fell shut.

That was so not helping Will to keep from spilling his load, but he

had to admit it was good. The combination of the sight of the man
above him, as well as the moving cock inside of him, was still
working to make him feel like he was having the best sex of his life,
only Hawke’s hand was making sure that it wasn’t about to end
prematurely.

“That’s good,” Will moaned. When Hawke had tied his hands,

he’d left enough slack in the ropes that he could still move them just a
little, and he grabbed the frame and gripped it tight as Hawke touched

Marcy Jacks

his prostate deep inside him on his next thrust.

That time he’d forgotten to bite down on his arm to keep from

moaning too loudly, but Hawke no longer seemed to notice as he
started to move like a man possessed. His thrusts were so hard and
fast that, had Will not been gripping the frame of the cot, he would
have been pushed upward, and then his wrists would really start to
hurt from the ropes.

He couldn’t keep himself quiet, especially when Hawke finally

released his dick and put his hands on either side of Will’s head and
just moved like a wild animal in heat.

They were so close. Will could feel the man’s breath on his face,

and he was so powerful between Will’s legs as he thrust faster.

Will couldn’t stand it anymore, and he moaned out loud as he

came. His orgasm seemed to go on forever as he spilled warm semen
onto his stomach as he arched his back. His whole body throbbed and
hummed in continued pleasure even after he finished, made better by
the fact that Hawke was apparently not yet done with him.

He kept right on moving, panting and moaning. He was beautiful.

Will was so glad he’d escaped his family’s house. Caging such a
handsome creature was too wrong.

Will was still thoroughly enjoying the show, even after his

pleasure turned into a mild discomfort, but then he both felt and saw
Hawke go still between his legs. He released a choked grunt and then
collapsed on top of him.

He was heavy. Will had been brought up to believe that vampires

were stronger and more superior to other species, but more and more
he was learning that there really wasn’t that much of a difference. Not
if two hundred or so pounds of muscle was enough to make Will have
a hard time breathing.

He didn’t complain, though. He liked the warmth and the

closeness. It allowed him to lie to himself about what had just
happened. Hawke liked him and desired him. That would have to be
enough. There could be no more while they were both on the run from

His Enemy Lover

creatures who would rather see them caged.

“Tell me we will be doing that again,” Will asked. He might have

to live with the fact that they weren’t even friends, but there was no
way he was letting that be a one-off.

Hawke blew out a deep breath against his chest. Will’s nipple

hardened under the onslaught. “Definitely.”

Unexpectedly, Hawke stiffened and pushed himself away from

Will. Will hissed at the sudden discomfort of cold air against his
warm flesh, and he squirmed in his restraints.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Hawke stared down at him. The suspicion was back in his eyes,

and Will didn’t like it. “You didn’t bite me,” he said.

“What?”
“I was so close. My face was right next to yours, my neck…but

you didn’t try to bite me.”

Will didn’t get the chance to be offended that Hawke still

apparently thought he was that kind of vampire when a loud banging
sound pounded on the other side of the barn doors.

Hawke none too gently pulled his now-soft prick out of Will’s

body, scooped up his clothing, and then ran to the door, hopping into
his pants along the way.

“Wait!” Will called.
“Stay there!” Hawke called back, barely glancing over his

shoulder, and apparently forgetting that Will was still tied to the cot.

* * * *

Hawke ran out of the barn, stumbling into his shoes as awkwardly

as he’d hopped back into his jeans. There was no one outside of the
doors like he thought there would be, but then he realized why, and he
quickly locked the barn behind him, hoping that would be enough to
keep the assassins from wanting to get inside. Right away, at least.

Assassins. Vampire assassins, if the tight black suits that clung to

Marcy Jacks

the skin and dark goggles were anything to go by. The village was in
chaos as men and women ran and screamed while the vampires pulled
out their guns and blades and began systematically hunting down their
prey. The people running away were either shot or netted, and the
men and women who got close enough to fight were quickly cut
down.

Brian was among those fighting, but he was at the front door to

his house, refusing to leave it as he hid behind a turned-over table and
picked off any of the assassins who dared to get too close with his
rifle.

There was a butterfly knife in his pocket, and that was about it

because he’d been too stupid to grab any of his other weapons from
his bag, and even then it wasn’t like he’d had a whole lot of heavy-
duty stuff in there anyway. He was guarding a vampire, and it was
considered better if there wasn’t a whole lot on hand that the hostage
could get his hands on.

Hawke ran to his father, and was grateful that the man had such

steady hands and good nerves that, even though he was running
toward him like mad, Brian didn’t just shoot him in a fit of blind
panic.

He did curse at him a little when Hawke landed next to him.

“Jesus! Don’t scare me like that!”

Brian positioned his rifle and fired off another shot. It struck the

man in black square in the head, blowing a hole as well as pieces of
his cranium all over the place, and he went down.

Those suits were reinforced, but their main purpose was to protect

against the sun, and there wasn’t anything on earth that could be worn
that could stop a well-placed shot from penetrating the skull like that.

Hawke helped himself to one of the guns that was in the bag

beside his father, and then he took hold of another holster that
contained several slots for holding sharp blades and other poisons.
That was his. Brian must’ve pulled it from the hidden compartment
under the chest in case Hawke would need it.

His Enemy Lover

They worked together fairly well like that.
Hawke put the holsters on. His own goggles weren’t inside the

bag. That was fine. He couldn’t use smoke screens while these
vampires wore their masks. They would be able to see through any
smog as clearly as Hawke would anyway, negating any advantage.
The poisons were out as well. The vampires would be too fast to
inhale them. Hawke quickly worked on opening his capsules, and
then wet a few of the blades with his tongue, careful of the sharp
edge, and then sprinkled the powder over the metal.

“What are you doing?” Brian asked, watching him with wide

eyes.

“Keep your eyes on the enemy, father. How many?”
Brian was the leader of the village, but in battle, he and Hawke

were both equals. “There were at least a dozen on my count. I
managed to kill five of them, and some have already left with full
nets.”

Those poor people would be turned into slaves and used as

fountains for the vampires to drink from. Hawke only hoped that
Vaughn or Anderson would not be among the taken. “So how many
are left?”

“Four or five,” Brian said.
With all the chaos happening around them, as well as how skilled

these vampires were, that was still more than enough to make a
village pay for kidnapping a vampire from a wealthy house.

“Can you keep them distracted?” Hawke asked.
Brian huffed. “What the hell do you think I’m doing now?”
Hawke grinned at his father, and he palmed his now-poisoned

blades. The vampires were fast, these ones especially since, unlike
Will, they had been trained for this line of work.

Hawke was just as fast, if not faster, and they wouldn’t be

expecting the sort of attacks he was going to be giving them, not
because of his human status.

He leaped back over the rail of the small deck and overturned

Marcy Jacks

table where he and his father hid, and began to quickly circle around
to the back of one attacker who caught his eye in particular. He just
needed to land one cut, and the poison would do the rest.

His Enemy Lover

Chapter Nine

Will struggled against the ropes that held him in place, which only

seemed to make them tighter around his wrists, and then they started
to hurt again from the lack of blood flow.

He was going to kill that idiot for leaving him like this. For real,

he meant it this time. There was nothing more humiliating than being
tied naked to a cot like this, fluids drying on his stomach and between
his legs, not even hidden from sight should anyone come in here.

He’d thought he’d heard the click of a lock from the outside,

maybe a padlock or a bolt, but that didn’t mean someone couldn’t still
get in here.

Then a masked face appeared right in front of him, and Will

screamed. He tried to, at any rate. A cloth was stuffed into his mouth,
and then he really started to flip out. He used his fangs and sharp teeth
to try and bite through it, but the material was tough, like something
that would be given to a powerful dog.

The thin face of the stranger in front of him with the large dark

goggles was an eerie sight, and Will knew exactly what this was.

A vampire. Likely sent by his father, or his fiancé’s family. The

man was an assassin and dressed to be working in the daylight hours
if the full-body black suit, mask, and goggles were anything to go by.

Will kicked his legs and tried to twist his body around, but the

vampire jumped on him, held him down, and then the knife was
pressed to his throat.

He went absolutely still, and then the man lifted his mask up just

enough for Will to see his face, but nothing else. It was no one that
Will recognized from his home, so there could be no mercy from this

Marcy Jacks

stranger, or any kindness, should he decide to simply kill him right
there. His features were hard and suspicious. He had a jagged scar
that ran down his mouth, giving him the impression of a permanent
scowl, as well as another scar that ran down his right eye.

That right eye was a pale blue, and the other was a dark brown.

Whether that difference had anything to do with the scar, Will
couldn’t be sure.

The man’s angry eyes squinted down at him, and then his blade

moved to Will’s lips, the sharp edge moving at a sideways angle so
that even though it scraped his skin, it didn’t cut.

It itched, however. There must have been silver on the blade. It

was not uncommon for even vampire guards or assassins to carry
blades made of silver, just in case they had to fight off their own, or
even werewolves, as unlikely as that last one was.

Will was not about to struggle with a knife pressing so close into

his skin. His body shivered, he couldn’t stop the trembling, or wishing
he could scratch at the building rash on his throat, but he did his
absolute best to hold still, even when the knife pressed between his
lips.

Will opened his mouth, and the cloth was pulled out. The man’s

other hand came down to peel his lips farther apart, and then he began
to examine Will’s fangs.

“You’re the one,” he said, nodding to himself. He sat up then

stared down at Will with disgust, as if only just noticing what was still
stuck to his stomach.

Will was hot with embarrassment, but he only cared that this man

was no longer lying flatly on top of him and that the knife had been
pulled away.

That relief lasted all of two seconds before he reached up to the

radio on his shoulder, pressed a button, and then called for his backup.

“This is Noir. I found the target. He’s in the barn and restrained.

Out.”

When there wasn’t a response right away, Noir put his hand back

His Enemy Lover

to the radio and called out again to whomever else might be out there.
Again, there was no answer.

Will didn’t know if that was normal, nor did he appreciate the

calculated look Noir was giving him now.

Noir reached into one of the many pockets that were all over the

dark costume he wore, and when he pulled out a vial, Will’s eyes
went wide.

“Draught of sleeping death,” he explained, as simply and easily as

if they were discussing the weather over biscuits. Likely it was the
same thing that Hawke had used when transporting Will away from
his family estate.

Will didn’t care. He didn’t want to be put under and hauled away

like a sack of potatoes.

He shook his head, and when the assassin, Noir, pulled the rag out

of his mouth, he turned his face away quickly before the stuff could
be forced down his throat.

“I don’t want to go back. I want to stay here!”
Noir’s hand had just gripped his chin and turned his head, but then

he stopped at Will’s words. “With the humans? Look at you. You’re
naked in a barn and clearly someone sexually assaulted you.”

Will shook his head, still staring down at the vial in Noir’s hand.

“That’s not what this is. I’m making a choice and I want to be here.”

“You’re deluded.”
“How do I know that’s not poison or something?” Will demanded.
“It’s not. Don’t bite me,” Noir said, and then gripped Will’s jaw

and cheeks so tightly that it hurt, and his mouth was forced open.

Using his thumb, Noir popped off the cap of the vial and then

forced the contents into Will’s mouth. Noir held Will’s lips shut and
put his other hand over his nose to keep him from breathing.

This was really happening. Will could already feel his lungs burn

since he didn’t even have the chance to take in a proper breath of air
before the potion was poured into his mouth.

He struggled against the sensation for as long as he could, but then

Marcy Jacks

as his throat constricted, trying to force air down, some of the potion
went down instead, and he immediately felt the sleepy sensation of
the drug working through him. He swallowed the stuff, and Noir
pulled his hands away now that Will was no longer a danger to him.
Not like he ever had been to begin with.

Everything was suddenly foggy and hazy, and as though it weren’t

happening to him at all, Will was aware of Noir untying his hands
before hoisting him over his shoulder.

Hawke. Will wanted Hawke to rush through those barn doors and

save him. Will had thought it was romantic that they had met up after
so many years apart, and considering their history together. How
romantic would it be if Hawke were to burst through those doors
while Noir was in the act of stealing him away, and then rescue him?

That didn’t happen. Noir climbed up to the rafters above the barn,

and only then did Will become aware of a sliver of light that was
coming between the wooden boards. A loose board. That was how
he’d gotten in.

Will giggled drunkenly, and then everything went dark as he was

placed in some kind of bag. Then the drug took complete effect and
he was out.

* * * *

Hawke wiped his bloody butterfly knife in the grass, then flicked

it shut and put it away. The holsters that had contained his other
blades were all empty. He’d had to throw most of them in order to
strike at the vampires who were too far away or already running with
their nets of drugged children. Only three adults were missing, Carl
was among them, and it was debatable on whether or not he even
qualified as an adult.

The scary thing was that he still wasn’t sure if he’d gotten them

all. The other farmhands were coming out, searching around with
their weapons in case anyone was missed, or finishing off the

His Enemy Lover

poisoned vampires that Hawke had gotten with his blades.

They would have to be cleaned later.
A quick glance in his father’s direction told him that the man was

all right. Brian waved him off before rushing into the house to check
on his wife.

Hawke was certain she would be okay since he hadn’t seen

anyone trying to sneak inside, and Brian had been guarding the only
door.

He rushed back to the barn, glad to see the padlock still in place

and unharmed. There was going to have to be a search party for the
people who had gone missing, and right now they could use Will’s
healing powers to help the injured.

Hawke opened the door a crack to prevent any sunlight from

streaming in and let himself inside. Then he stopped cold at the sight
of his empty cot.

The ropes he’d used were still there, tied to the cot’s frame, and

with a sudden panic, Hawke couldn’t remember if he’d been the one
to untie the man. They weren’t chewed through or cut. Someone had
been in here.

Then he heard the long groan from the wood above him.
Hawke looked up just as a dark figure vanished through a set of

loose boards in the barn’s roof. The assassin had a large sack over his
shoulder.

“No!” Hawke rushed back out the barn’s only doors and ran

around to the other side of the barn.

Some of the farmhands stared at him as he ran like a crazed man

through them, even pushing some of them out of the way when they
tried stepping in his path for whatever help they wanted. He ran into
the trees where the assassin was trying to disappear and Hawke used
every last bit of speed he possessed, and he paid no attention to the
angered shouts behind him.

There, he saw him. The vampire was good, jumping through the

trees like that, a tactic that even Hawke used, but he was being slowed

Marcy Jacks

down by his heavy cargo. Hawke deftly climbed the next tree he came
upon with branches that could hold him yet still allow him to keep
sight of the vampire slaver. Within seconds he was on the man’s trail
again, and he was catching up.

“Get back here! Stop!” he yelled. He was painfully aware of the

knife still in his pocket, but he didn’t dare throw it, not while
Will―he assumed it was Will inside of that bag―was hanging over
the assassin’s back like that.

Of course the stupid man didn’t listen, but he must have realized

that there was no way he was outrunning this human, regardless of
how fast he was.

The man jumped down from the tree branches, and Hawke

suddenly had a terrified mental image of the assassin dropping the bag
in midjump, allowing himself to land gracefully while letting the
person in the sack land painfully, even fatally, on his head or
something.

He didn’t. The vampire landed on his feet, but still kept the

bagged individual safely over his shoulder.

Hawke kept to the trees as the assassin continued to run.
The stupid bastard thought he was going to lose Hawke if he was

on the ground and didn’t have to worry about catching himself on the
tree branches. Hawke worked better in the trees, and if anything, he
only got closer.

One well-placed jump and he would have him.
Finally, the assassin must have realized there was nothing to be

done for it because, without stopping or slowing down, he dropped
the bag and kept going on his way.

Hawke’s first instinct was to chase him down and catch him, to

kill him for what he’d tried to do, but he stopped and let himself drop
to the ground. He quickly ran to the bag and dragged it over to a pine
tree with low-hanging branches. The shade wasn’t perfect, but it
would have to be enough.

There was a set of metal buttons that he pulled apart, and then a

His Enemy Lover

heavy zipper beneath them. Hawke quickly felt with his hands what
was inside, and when he found the head of the person within, he
unzipped the bag to have a look.

He breathed a heavy sigh. It was Will. He was pale and still, but

when Hawke touched his shaking hand to his chest and put his fingers
under his nose, he could feel that his heart was beating, and he was
breathing. He was alive.

Thank God.
Hawke pulled the man closer to him and hugged him. He couldn’t

even stop thinking about how close he’d come to losing him and
never seeing him again.

He said it out loud this time. “Thank God.”
It might’ve only been a minute or two, but considering the danger

he and Will were both still in, that was an embarrassingly long
amount of time for him to have been sitting there hugging the vampire
close. He was acting like a child who was afraid he might lose his
favorite teddy bear or something.

Hawke wiped his eyes and looked up. The tree branches kept him

from seeing too much, but there was no way the assassin had left, not
after Hawke had stopped like that, and the vampire would have
realized that Hawke had chased after him alone, like a lunatic.

To be safe, Hawke zipped the bag back up to keep any stray

beams of sun from sneaking through the pine needles and branches.
Will’s heart and breath hadn’t exactly been coming at a normal rate,
but his skin tone clearly said that he wasn’t about to die from it. The
assassin had likely given him a sleeping draught, just like Hawke had
done, and he wanted to see the bastard for himself.

He stepped out and away from the branches and stood straight. He

strained his ears and kept his eyes peeled. All the while, his fists were
clenched and ready. “You might as well get out here. I know you’re
there.”

It didn’t startle him when the vampire leapt down from one of the

tree branches and landed gracefully only ten feet away from him.

Marcy Jacks

Hawke had been expecting something like that, but he was a little
shocked that he hadn’t heard the man running around back in the
trees.

The assassin’s knees bent on the landing, but then he stood

straight. He was a little taller than Hawke, but he wasn’t worried. He
pulled his butterfly knife out. Would there still be poison on the blade
after he’d stabbed other vampires with it? Either way, a vampire
could still bleed to death if cut in the right place.

Surprisingly, the vampire in black didn’t pull out a knife, or a

pistol with a suppressor on it. He raised his hands only a little, and
took one step forward.

“I am not here to fight with you. I just want my cargo.”
It enraged Hawke to hear another man refer to Will as cargo.

Hawke used to be referred to as cargo. Property to be worked and
bought and sold, like he was a mindless drone, or even a piece of
furniture. Will had mentioned that he was going to be married off if
he hadn’t run away. Was Will really treated with little more respect
than the average human worker?

“He wants to stay with me,” he said, not at all sure if that was

true. “You’re not taking him.”

“I’m being paid a large amount of money to return him to his

family. More than what I would get for just bringing in another
human. Your men managed to kill the others that came with me, but
you and I alone? I doubt there would be much you could do.”

Hope filled Hawke’s chest. The other vampires who had

kidnapped the three men had been caught and killed? Already? Good.
That was very good. It meant that the location of this village would
stay safe for a while longer.

“I took a vampire right off his family property and then ran all the

way here with him. I’m pretty sure I could take you just fine.”

“Were you the one who raped him?”
Hawke’s eyes flew wide. “What?”
“I found him tied down. Clearly someone had forced themselves

His Enemy Lover

onto him.”

Hawke couldn’t see the vampire’s features because of that

damned mask, but the voice he used was enough to give him the
impression that he was being glared at.

“He was with me because he wanted to be with me,” Hawke said.

“I’m not a rapist.”

“Well, too bad he’s not awake so we can’t ask him.” The vampire

was clearly taking offense to the fact that someone may have done
something so terrible to one of his own kind. Hawke couldn’t blame
him, but he wasn’t about to let himself get killed over it. He dodged
easily out of the way when the assassin charged him, blades popping
out from hidden compartments attached to his wrists.

Because of the mask again, all Hawke had to work with as far as

what the vampire was thinking was his body language, and he got the
impression that he’d stunned his opponent with the speed he’d used to
get out of the way.

“Those are some pretty cool toys,” Hawke said, looking down at

the long blades. They were as long as his forearm. “When I kill you, I
think I’ll take them.”

“You’ll kill me with what? That little knife you have?”
“I did manage to get out of the way of your attack before you

could slice me open.”

“Dumb luck. I know your kind. I see the infinity tattoo on your

hand. You’re out to avenge yourself by taking your frustrations out on
a vampire. Can’t say I blame you, but I won’t let you keep him to
torture him. Better he goes back to his kind.”

That nearly made Hawke lose it altogether, and it took everything

he had to keep himself from going completely mad and just charging
the presumptuous fucker right there. He had to stay calm. If he lost his
focus, he was as good as dead.

“Not that I don’t want to kill every single vampire slaver in the

world, but what do you know about it? You have no idea what
humans go through at the hands of your people.”

Marcy Jacks

Will knew. Will was different, and Hawke wasn’t about to let this

asshole take him away.

The assassin straightened his legs, coming out of his defensive,

nearly crouching position, and with the sun at his back, he lifted the
glove on his right hand just enough without removing it entirely, and
he showed the tattoo to Hawke without putting any of his skin in
direct sunlight.

Hawke couldn’t believe it. The infinity tattoo. “That’s

impossible,” he said, shaking his head. “Vampires don’t enslave their
own.”

“And thus, you prove your ignorance of my people,” said the

assassin as he pulled his glove back down. “It’s not merely inked
there either. It is a genuine tattoo, and a brand. Even if I were to
remove the tattoo itself, the scar would remain.”

Christ, even vampires could be slaves? There were hows and

whys to that, but that was for a later time.

“If you’re a slave then you might as well give Will to me and then

run free somewhere. Go to the North or to the South, out of the
vampire lands. You could be free.”

“I already am. I earned my freedom and now I put my skills to

good use. Though I am curious as to why you would care about a
vampire’s freedom when you had one tied up in a barn.”

Hawke clenched his fists. “I don’t give a shit about you. I’m

against slavery on principal, and I told you, he wanted to be there. He
asked me to tie him up.”

Now the assassin was rubbing his chin and looking over toward

the tree with the heavy branches where Hawke had hidden his lover.

“He did mention something about that.”
Hawke blew up on the man, losing all of his focus and yet

allowing his anger to flow out of him now that he was sure they were
only having a conversation and not about to fight to the death. Yet.
“Then why the fucking hell did you take him?” he screamed.

The assassin shrugged. “Several reasons. I had a job to do, for

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one. You also could have brainwashed him for all I knew. Made him
sympathize with you until he would allow you to do whatever sort of
twisted thing you thought up for the moment.”

Hawke wanted to start yelling at the man again, but then he

stopped himself as the realization hit him. That was exactly the kind
of thing that happened with most slaves. They grew to love their
masters, in some sick and warped way. Most would never leave if
given the option, and they would defend the very people who jailed
them.

“Would it matter if it was really his choice to stay and not some

trick? Or would you still try to take him for the sake of your job?”

Again, the assassin seemed to think about this. “The rest of my

team is dead. That was a lot of valuable men your village killed. If I
returned alone, the sole survivor, I doubt there would be much of a
punishment for me, and now the house I serve would be much too
weak to send another group of attackers after your village even if I
told them where it was.”

Which meant that he probably would tell them. He would have to,

eventually. Unless he made up some story about being the only
surviving warrior from a human ambush that had taken place outside
of the village, and even then the vampires in charge would still have
an idea of where to send their next batch of troops.

“There are villages that aren’t hidden from the vampires’ eyes and

they do well enough.” Only because they had enough numbers that
the vampires chose to treat those areas with caution. “We’ll be fine,
so long as you go.”

Still, the assassin continued to stare at him in a way that was

starting to get under Hawke’s skin. He would feel much better about
this whole thing if the man would just stop that already. It was worse
than being in a fight to the death.

“I can’t in good conscience leave him here. Not unless I hear for

myself one more time that he is not in danger.”

“How about I just kill you and that will be the end of that?”

Marcy Jacks

Hawke demanded.

“You could try to kill me. Maybe you will even succeed, but I am

very skilled. Even if you have the luck to end my life before I end
yours, do you really think you would get away without injury? The
smell of blood would draw predators, and you wouldn’t have the
energy to return to your village. Maybe you would bleed out before
you made it, and then what would happen to him?” Noir pointed with
his hand to where Will was still drugged and sleeping.

Hawke clenched his jaw. The stupid bastard had him there.
The man pulled a vial out of one of the seemingly hundreds of

pockets he had on himself and tossed it to Hawke.

He caught it, taking his eyes away from the man in front of him

for only a split second, not wanting to risk that it was a distraction.

The vampire held perfectly still.
“That’s a vial of beauty’s kiss. It should wake him if you put it

under his nose.”

Hawke shook his head at the name, but he moved toward the tree,

keeping one eye on the assassin who may or may not be a threat any
longer.

Beauty’s kiss. The mages and warlocks who made and named

these potions weren’t exactly known for their creativity in certain
departments, but still…

“Don’t you dare move from that spot,” Hawke said, letting his

threat stay silent.

The man just crossed his arms and planted his feet. Lovely.
Just to be on the safe side, when Hawke put himself under the

shade of the pine tree, he popped off the cap and held the vial a little
ways away from his nose. He slowly brought it forward, inhaling
deeply as he did before the strong citrusy scent came onto him. The
scent seemed to fly up his nose, making the inside walls of his nostrils
tingle and gave him a bit of an energy boost, even when the vial was
still a good twelve inches away.

He’d heard of beauty’s kiss. It was supposed to smell like citrus,

His Enemy Lover

and he didn’t feel sick, or like he was about to die or anything, so this
must be the real deal.

“I wouldn’t trick you into poisoning him simply because I would

not be able to take him. You do not have to fear that from me.”

Hawke didn’t answer. He would rather have taken the risk on

himself than let Will be hurt.

He opened the bag that Will was still inside and then waved the

vial beneath his nose.

He pulled it back again and corked it when Will jerked up with a

panicked start. Hawke put his hand down against Will’s chest, even as
his arms flailed.

“It’s me. Will! It’s me,” he said, his voice getting calmer when

recognition lit up behind the man’s eyes.

Hawke braced himself for attack when Will threw himself at him,

and he raised his arms instinctively to ward off punches, but the fists
didn’t come. Will wrapped his arms around Hawke’s shoulders and
clutched him so tightly with that vampire strength of his that Hawke
actually had trouble breathing.

He trembled bodily, but he wasn’t crying. It didn’t take Hawke

much to realize, however, that he was still scared out of his mind and
slipping into shock.

He ignored his breathing problems and put his fingers through

Will’s dark, honey-blond hair, petting him and making soothing
shushing noises. He hoped they were soothing, anyway. He didn’t
know if he was making an idiot out of himself and there was still the
fact that the crazy former slave turned assassin was still looking at
them.

“You came. I can’t believe you’re here,” Will said.
That sent a lance straight through Hawke’s heart. Of course he

came. Why wouldn’t he? Though maybe Will still had some doubts
based on how they’d come together, but that was going to have to get
sorted out later. There were still other matters that needed taking care
of.

Marcy Jacks

“Will, I need you to do something for me, and then we can go

back.”

“Go back?” Will looked up and around, and his eyes widened as

he realized that he was outside and only being protected by the flimsy
shade of tree branches, but then he must have seen who was waiting
on the other side of those tree branches and he started to panic again.

Hawke had to hurry and grab him before he could scramble back

and out of the safety of the shade. Luckily, Hawke’s own speed and
strength, as well as the fact that Will’s lower body was still trapped in
the large black bag he’d been stuffed into, prevented him from getting
out into the sun and frying himself in a panic.

Hawke shook him. “Listen! I need you calm right now. He and I,

we…worked something out,” Hawke said, not entirely sure what it
was they had come to an agreement on, other than they both thought
slavery was wrong, and that the assassin might leave without any
more problems if he could just see that Will was better off here
instead of with whatever vampire family he worked for.

Will looked over at the man through the tree branches. “Really?”
He nodded. “I know that even the masters are not always free, and

my comrades are dead. I could say whatever I like and make up any
excuse I see fit for our failure. I will not, however, leave you here if
you are being abused. Say the word now, and I will deal with this
human, or I will go. I leave the choice to you.”

“You didn’t leave it to me when you took me. How long was I

even out for?” Will demanded, and Hawke was painfully aware of
how the man did not stop shaking, or loosen his grip once he decided
to hold onto Hawke for all he was worth once more.

“Not long,” Hawke said. “That’s all you need to know. What do

you want to do?”

Will looked up at him, his amber eyes bright and wide, and

Hawke was left with the strong urge to just kiss him senseless.

“What…you, too?”
Hawke bit his lips together. “The whole point of taking you was to

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exploit a weakness in some of the more powerful vampire families.
This wasn’t the way we thought it would happen, but if you count the
dead assassins, then we still succeeded. They know we’re a force to
be reckoned with.” He wasn’t about to mention the fact that other
villages would also be sent out to deal with the vampire family who
had lost their warriors and then try to claim the house and all of its
assets. Not with an assassin standing right over there who might very
well, in all likelihood, decide not to keep that particular bit of
information to himself when he went back to his employers.

Hawke didn’t care if he was a former slave. He still worked for

vampires now, and he didn’t trust the bastard to not leak that
information.

“You can go if you want,” Hawke said. “I’ll send you on your

way to the South where the mages are if that’s where you want to go.
No one in my village will follow you.”

For the second time in the day, he felt a spear sail through his

chest and heart. The thought of Will leaving now…no, he was being
sentimental and stupid. And clingy. If Will wanted to go, then Hawke
would wish him well and hope for the best. Will had let him go all
those years ago, the very least Hawke could do right now would be
the same.

“What do you want to do?” Hawke asked again when Will gave

no answer.

It was hard, trying to not get lulled in by how deep Will’s eyes

were, the feel of his warm body safe in his arms, or the nerve-
wracking decision he was about to make, all while a vampire assassin
stood only feet away from them, ready to swoop in and kill Hawke
when he was distracted, take Will away either back to his family or
that nest of other vampires he was supposed to be married into, or
leave them alone and disappear forever. Because in some odd fantasy
land, the third option involved Will wanting to stay because he was
madly in love with Hawke, and not because he wanted to travel to the
southern lands and disappear forever.

Marcy Jacks

Chapter Ten

There was something in Hawke’s eyes that made Will pause when

he was about to admit to what he wanted out of all of this.

Of course he didn’t want to go. He wanted to stay. Going to the

district occupied by the magical folk had been the point, but now Will
thought he would be most happy if he stayed in Hawke’s village with
him, healing the sick and injured.

That wouldn’t be enough to get the other humans to completely

trust him, but he liked the little imaginary land where he was a
welcome member of their group, and if he and Hawke wanted to start
something, well, then…

Will cleared his throat. “I don’t want my family to find me. I want

to go to the mage district,” he said.

It was stupid of him to be having the thoughts he was just because

he and Hawke had gone to bed together and it had been great.

Hawke nodded and then turned to look back at Noir. “You heard

him. He wants to be free. Go away.”

Noir stayed staring at them through the tree branches, which was

kind of an odd effect, but then he nodded his head a fraction, turned
around, and walked away.

He was probably going to wait until he was out of sight before he

started doing his whole vampire-assassin, great-stamina, flying-
squirrel thing.

“I’m surprised you let him go,” Will said. “What if he tells his

employers where your village is?”

“Then we’ll move. Besides, I doubt his employers will have the

strength to send out any kind of attack after the massive shit kicking

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we just gave to all the men they sent.”

Will’s eyes widened. “They’re all dead?”
Hawke face remained hard. “Apparently. I need to get back to

confirm this, though, and considering it isn’t exactly a cloudy day…”
Hawke trailed off, his fingers back on the zipper of the claustrophobic
bag Will had been stuffed into. He glared at Hawke, even as he started
to zip the thing back up.

“This would almost be better if you hadn’t woken me up.”
“I know. Don’t move around too much. Don’t want to risk

dropping you.”

* * * *

Will was relieved when Hawke didn’t take them into the trees. He

could tell by the easy way the man ran, and there was no sensation of
climbing coming from him either.

It made the ride easier, but now Will was perfectly awake and

breathing in the hot and stale air of the bag he’d been stuffed into.
That was uncomfortable enough, but he was still fully conscious, and
he could hear the anger of the villagers well enough when they
returned.

There were angry-sounding grumbles and the like, the kinds of

things that Will couldn’t make out through the sack but was still
aware of.

This was the reason he couldn’t stay. Hawke had run off and

risked himself to rescue a vampire, when there was still so much that
needed to be done in the village after a group of vampires attacked.
One woman had actually come right up to Hawke, and if the sharp
sound of flesh on flesh was any indication, she’d slapped him, too.

“My son Carl was taken by one of those things, and you ran off to

get him? What if he hadn’t come back? How could you live with
yourself?”

She was screaming and crying, too. Fantastic. Will made sure to

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breathe as little as possible. It was cowardly, but the hot and
murderous sun was still beating down just outside of the safety of the
bag he was in, and the last thing he wanted was to remind these
people that he was there, alive, and very capable of being pulled out
of the bag by an angry mob and left to fry like barbecue that had been
so overcooked it had lit on fire.

The only thing he regretted was that it meant leaving Hawke alone

to deal with the angry villagers.

“We needed him for just this reason. He is our bargaining chip

against the vampires and they have already wasted valuable men
trying to―”

Another slapping sound cut him off. Will winced in sympathy

pain for the man. That sounded like it really hurt.

The woman who was dishing out the abuse spoke again. Her voice

was low, and it trembled just a little. Will wondered if her body was
trembling as well with the rage she no doubt felt. Nothing other than
that could make anyone continually hit the son of the man in charge,
especially considering the talented fighter, tracker, and killer that
Hawke was.

“Don’t you ever try to tell me something like that again. I don’t

want to hear those excuses if my child goes missing.”

From the sound of it, Will was getting the fearful impression that

more people were on their way, shuffling closer and muttering their
agreement with the abusive woman.

Will had heard the name Carl mentioned. Wasn’t that one of the

bastards that had tried to torture him while he’d been tied up in the
barn?

Will was going to have to have a talk with Hawke about the

dangers of constantly leaving him bound to things unsupervised.
Clearly that was a sign of trouble.

He was only just starting to wonder if he would get the chance to

have that kind of conversation with him when Brian’s voice broke
through the angry rumbling of the crowd.

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“That’s enough! Margaret, Carl is back so I would appreciate it if

you kept your hands off of my son. The rest of you back away and get
back to cleanup. We’re not done yet and I’ll need a chance to speak
with my son.”

Will was surprised when the villagers moved on, back to tending

to their wounded or whatever else there was that needed to be done,
considering all that had happened. He didn’t know if he would be the
kind of man to simply walk away if he had so many questions of his
own flying around inside of his head.

It only went to show how much the people in this village

respected their leader.

“Is he okay?” Will heard Brian ask, and he was actually a little

touched that the man even remembered him.

“Yeah, awake, too, unless he fell asleep on the walk back.”
Will’s face went hot. Hotter than it already was inside of the

suffocating bag with the sun beating down on it.

“I’m fine. Can you get me out of here?” he asked, humiliated and

wondering how pathetic and muffled his voice sounded from within
the wretched bag.

There was no chuckle at his expense. No sign that, at least

amongst them, things would be fine. Both men were silent, and then
Hawke began moving again.

Will thought they might be going back to the barn when he heard

the clomp of Hawke’s booted feet against a wooden floor. Up a
couple of steps, and then, from the sound of it, a normal-sized door
was opening for them.

“Can you get the windows, Dad?” Hawke asked.
They were in his parents’ house.
There was a shuffle and the sound of shutters being closed, just

like they had been the last time Will had been brought here.

Finally, he was set on the floor, and the buttons and zipper of the

bag he’d been forced to stay in opened, and he breathed in some fresh
air. The first thing he noticed after three wonderful breaths of clean

Marcy Jacks

air was the red splotches on Hawke’s face where he’d been slapped.

Hawke’s eyes on him were sad. “Fuck, I forgot your clothes. Wait

here. Dad.”

“I’ll watch him,” the other man said as Hawke practically flew out

the door, almost forgetting to not open it so much as he left. Luckily
the sun wasn’t in the right position to get directly in to the house from
the door.

Will told himself to not be embarrassed, and to not take it

personally that he was still apparently under guard.

He didn’t want to do it, but he couldn’t help but look at the other

man in the room who was staring down at him curiously. Probably
wondering why Will was naked inside of the bag he was wearing.

He looked down at it instead, if only to keep from looking at

Hawke’s father. Only then did he notice how much the thing
resembled a body bag. He shivered and wanted to hop out of the
thing. His muscles twitched and jumped, begging him to do just that,
but he held perfectly still.

The only thing worse than being naked in a room with the father

of the man Will had just had sex with would be if he’d stood up and
entirely exposed himself to the guy, too.

Then he really would need the body bag because he would die on

the spot.

Thankfully, Hawke returned not too much longer later, though it

had felt like hours. He held Will’s now extremely dirty clothes in his
hands, and Brian muttered something about giving them some
privacy.

“Come on, I’ll take you into my room,” Hawke said.
At least Will could now walk there on his own, though when he

stood up, despite how eager he was to forever be away from the body
bag, he awkwardly wrapped the bag around his middle to keep from
walking around completely buck-ass naked.

Hawke’s room was even more sparsely furnished than that of his

parents, and less than half the size. There was a steel frame bed with a

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nightstand that, on a closer inspection, had paint peeled off most of it,
and was missing a stumpy leg and was kept steady by a brick. The
window was shut, just as all the other windows were when Will came
to visit, but the nightstand was beneath it, and there was a solar-
powered lamp sitting on top of it. Aside from some books on a shelf
nailed to the wall, that was the extent of the furniture. Honestly, this
room looked like it used to be the closet for the entire house, though
maybe that was stretching it a little. Closets weren’t built with
windows, after all.

It made Will feel like a complete ass for never appreciating the

little things he had, like central heating in the winter and air-
conditioning in the summer. New furniture, soft rugs beneath his cold
feet, and a wall of books in the family library to read, or even old
videos to watch on the television.

He’d never thought about having all of those things, things which

were rare and expensive to come by, even by a vampire’s standards. It
was hard to keep the electricity going in certain areas when there
weren’t enough people to work in the places that produced it, and
Will was ashamed to admit that he didn’t know how that worked
either.

He felt the need to give his compliments to the room. “That’s

actually very smart,” he said, nodding to the bed that was vertical of
the window. “I guess when the shutters are open, it gives you good
light to read in during the day while charging the lamp for night?”

“Um, yeah,” Hawke said, clearly feeling a little awkward about

the whole thing.

Maybe Will shouldn’t have said anything at all. He wanted to slap

himself for drawing attention to what was likely the most valuable
thing in the room.

“I’ll let you get dressed and see about maybe finding you a spare

change of clothes. I didn’t see your bag but I’m guessing you’ll want
blood soon.”

Will reached his hand out and snatched Hawke’s wrist before he

Marcy Jacks

could vacate the room. “Where are you going?”

Hawke didn’t even turn to look at him, and that hurt almost as

much as the cold shoulder he was getting. “I just said I was going to
bring you your blood bag.”

“No, I mean, what’s wrong? You seem different.” Something had

changed. They hadn’t exactly snuggled up by the fire on a tiger skin
rug or anything like that, but Will had come to believe that they were
getting close. Now, while he was not hostile toward him and still
showing him an inkling of trust, offering to leave him alone and all
that, Hawke seemed determined to get as far away from Will as he
possibly could.

Now Hawke did turn to look at him, and his face was colder than

anything Will had ever seen on him. He dropped the man’s hand, not
afraid that Hawke would hurt him. He was fairly confident they were
past that point, but just…wow.

“Is it because you don’t need me anymore?”
Hawke’s eyes widened a little. “What?”
“You said to that woman that you needed me to get the vampires’

attention. You have it, so you don’t need me anymore?”

Hawke bit his lips together. “We both knew how this was going to

end. You want to go to the mages. That’s fine. I’ll try to get you some
supplies together, maybe some animal blood and food you can take
with you before you head out.”

“I wanted to go there,” Will said, “I still do, I guess, but I can’t

leave now. What about your mother? I still have to see her at least a
few more times, and there are people in the village I can heal. You
said some people got injured in the attack.”

“I doubt anyone will let you near them.”
Will winced.
Hawke sighed. “You said you wanted to leave. Don’t make this

harder than it needs to be.”

Wait a minute. That sounded an awful lot like Hawke was the one

in pain, not Will.

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“Do you want me to leave?”
“I want you to be free from your family if that’s what you want. I

especially don’t want you near any estates after what happened.”

“Because they’ll be attacked?” Will asked, not knowing why he

bothered since he already knew what the whole point of all of this
was. The humans were going to try and take back some land of their
own to claim, and they were going to go to war with the vampires to
do it.

“Yes,” Hawke said.
A strong happiness that Will had never felt before started to

bubble in his chest. “You’re actually worried about me?”

Hawke threw his hands in the air in the classic fashion, his face

showing all kinds of what-did-you-think-this-was-about? “Of course I
am. I don’t want to see you getting picked up by bounty-hunting
vampires and I don’t want any humans to find you and throw you in a
burning fire.”

That was a scary thought, but it didn’t stop Will from feeling

happier than he ever did in his life.

“Will you stop looking at me like that?” Hawke snapped.
Will shook his head. “I can’t help it. You chased down Noir even

when you didn’t need to because we were done, and now you’re
talking about keeping me safe. I can’t exactly help it if those are
qualities in a lover that I like.”

Hawke crossed his arms. “Noir? That vampire who walked away I

guess? Whatever, that doesn’t matter. Fine, yes, I do like you, it’s
kind of impossible not to after everything that’s happened, but it
doesn’t mean there’s anything between us.”

No, it didn’t, but Hawke caring about him was the strongest

emotion anyone had ever admitting to having for Will. He was so
stupidly giddy with pleasure that someone could look at him and think
that Hawke had professed his undying love for him or something.

“I ran away from my family because no one cares for anyone in

that house. My mother could be murdered in front of my father, and

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he wouldn’t care so long as the man who did it paid to clean up the
carpet she’d bled all over, and she feels the same way about him. My
brothers and sisters? Forget it. They were all ready to sell me off to
the next nest of vampires who wanted me just for some more land and
blood. You care about me, and your family cares about you. I bet
even that woman who gave you that cares about you a little,” Will
said, reaching out and gently pressing his fingertips against the red
splotch on his cheek.

Hawke didn’t move away from his touch. He stayed completely

still, however, watching Will like he was a predator about to pounce.

“You’re saying you’re jealous of me? I remember what your

house was like. There’s nothing in here to be jealous of.”

“The Delany vampires do have a lot more possessions than you

do, but if it was worth it, I wouldn’t have left.”

Will poured a little of his healing magic into Hawke’s face. The

redness vanished, and he probed deeper to soothe any future swelling.
There were also some minor aches and pains from having run after
him in the forest, and Will put some of his energy into those, too. The
whole time, Hawke continued to stare at him like there was a broom
handle stuck up his ass.

He really needed to relax. “Let me stay, for at least a little while. I

can help heal your mother and the people in the village, then what you
want with me is up to you. I can stay or I can go.”

Hawke’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. “That’s a generous offer.

Thank you.”

Whatever small bubble of joy that had been building in Will’s

chest burst at the casual tone in Hawke’s voice. Either he was
purposely misunderstanding, or he was just trying not to hurt Will’s
feelings by outright telling him that it wasn’t necessary for him to stay
with a village full of humans.

Will was offering to stay, permanently. If Hawke so much as

whispered that he wanted him, then he would do it. Hawke didn’t
seem interested in opening his arms to Will and telling him how much

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101

he wanted him to stay, how his life hadn’t been complete without
him, and all that other romantic nonsense.

Honestly, Will didn’t know where he got some of these ideas

from.

He didn’t want to draw any more attention to himself or his idiotic

near-declarations of love, so instead, he nodded. “Right, I’ll get
dressed, pay a visit to your mother, and then if anyone’s feeling well
enough, or brave enough,” Will said, recalling that most of the people
in the village were against his existence on principle. “They can come
and see me, or wait until nightfall when I can go to see them.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Hawke said, shifting awkwardly, like he

couldn’t wait to get out of the room. “I’ll go and tell everyone about
the offer. Ease them into the idea of being in the same room as a
vampire. Some of them won’t want to come and see you, you know.”

Will sighed. “Yeah, I know.”
In his romantic fantasy, he would have been brave enough to grab

hold of Hawke and maybe even kiss him senseless before he had the
chance to escape the room. He would have pulled him down onto the
bed and they would’ve made love. His fantasies were ignoring the
fact that they were both still in Hawke’s parents’ house, and that the
walls were so thin that there was no way they’d be able to get away
with something like that without letting his father and mother know
about what they were doing, but even the realist in him would still
have enjoyed it.

Instead he watched as the other man left the room, closing the

door gently behind him, and Will was left with the feeling that a
closed door between them had a stronger meaning than the obvious.

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Chapter Eleven

Hawke was still busy working out how he felt about Will’s

continued presence four days later, and like a pussy, he was still
avoiding the other man.

He’d had a scare, come to realize that maybe he was starting to

fall too hard, too fast for the vampire, and to top it all off, Will was
apparently dealing with his own insecurities about what to do.

He’d told Noir that he still had plans to go into mage territory, but

then practically offered to bind himself to Hawke and the whole
village if that was what he wanted.

Of course it was what he wanted. He didn’t want Will to go

anywhere. In a way, meeting the man was like finding that other piece
of himself that had been missing ever since he ran away from his life
as a slave. Then they found each other, like in some cliché romance
novel, and of course Hawke had to give in to the temptation of having
sex with him because that certainly seemed to seal the deal as far as
his feelings went.

He waited for night to come, every night, with dread that it would

finally be the night when Will decided he’d done all that could be
done, and was tired of being glared at by Hank and his band of
dipshits, and then finally leave.

Hawke had made sure to not so much as touch him. He didn’t

want to even brush elbows with him in a tight space by accident in
case it led to him throwing the other man down and having his
desperate way with him. He really was pathetic.

The only thing that was bothering him now, stupid as it was, was

the complete lack of antagonism from the village toward Will.

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103

Again, it was a stupid thing to annoy him. It was great that all the

villagers weren’t lining up with torches and silver blades to gang up
on him, but their growing acceptance of him, and outright gratitude
for his healing gifts, was only making things worse for Hawke.

Thinking like that from the small population that made up their

village only got him to thinking how easy it would be to allow Will to
stay, to ask him to never leave. They could live happily ever after,
humans and vampires.

The only thing that reminded him of how stupid that was, was

when his own inner voice sounded sarcastic when he thought up
scenarios like that.

Will wanted to be free. It wasn’t right that Hawke would try and

tie him down just because he was suddenly suffering from a case of
Stockholm or something.

The problem was that every time he thought about Will leaving,

he wanted to punch a wall.

The only bright light in all of this was that his mother was finally

out of bed. Will had made the habit of checking on her every day, and
putting at least some of his healing energy into her, whether she said
she needed it or not. Brian was only too happy to threaten to tie her to
the bed if she didn’t let Will use his talents on her.

Now she was actually walking around the house, making her own

tea, or reading happily under the light of the only other solar-powered
lamp in the house.

She was currently enjoying those activities now, curled up on an

old sofa in his father’s robe and with her braid hanging over her
shoulder. With Brian gone, having travelled with some of the other
elder members of the village as well as a few younger men for
protection to the nearest village for a progress report, or whatever it
was the people in charge liked to do, that left Hawke to protect her
and the village.

“You don’t have to stand over me like that, sweetheart,” Felicia

said, sipping at her tea and turning the page to a romance novel so old

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and yellowed it must have come from before the war that screwed
everything up for the humans.

It didn’t even have a cover or a spine and was only held together

by flaking bits of old glue. Felicia was always gentle with whatever
books Hawke managed to bring her, even when they looked like they
were better suited for a fire.

“I just want to make sure you’re all right,” he said, and then had to

look away when she gazed up at him, lifting an eyebrow.

He had been watching her pretty close, lately. He worried she

would relapse back into her illness, but there was also the concern that
she would suddenly jump up with an overabundance of energy and
start running around and not stop for several days.

The sight of her calmly reading and drinking tea made Hawke a

little less worried about that. Maybe Will had been right. Maybe that
energy transfer only happened because it was something special
between the two of them.

He would keep watching for now, just in case.
“You’re my son, not a bodyguard. Have some tea for God’s sake.

You’re making me feel strange in my own house.”

Hawke muttered to himself and moved to the kitchen to pour a

cup, even though he hated the stuff, and decided to only sip at it just
to placate her. He was still watching her closely. He searched for any
signs of a relapse back into her cancer and the other things that had
been plaguing her. They’d always known she’d been sickly, but just
how sick had scared the living hell out of him. He was surprised that
Brian even left her alone.

The man had a lot of faith in Will’s ability, it seemed.
She looked fine, good color, lots of energy, and she wanted to get

back to doing her part to help out around the village. That was where
Brian drew the line, and Hawke agreed with him. Hawke lived in a
world where the prepared and the careful were the ones who survived.
In this case, he and Brian wanted to make sure Felicia would survive
for another thirty years after Will left.

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105

The reminder of the other man brought a pang in his chest, and he

was suddenly aware of how silent it was in the room.

Felicia was looking up at him, her brown eyes soft, and for the

first time in a long time, not because she was sapped of strength and
tired just from being awake.

“What?” he asked, suddenly feeling a little too self-conscious, but

he managed to resist the urge to look himself over to see if there was
something on him that shouldn’t be.

“You’re different now,” Felicia said, setting the scraps of paper

that were supposed to be her book down on her lap. “Ever since the
healer came here. You’re different.”

“The healer” was what the village had taken to calling Will. No

one was on the first-name basis with him that Hawke was, and
everyone seemed to think it an insult, except for Hank, to call him the
vampire. Calling him a healer seemed much more appropriate to the
people who decided that Will wasn’t so bad, and that there must have
been a fluke in nature somewhere to have produced a vampire as nice
as Will was.

“I’m not different,” Hawke insisted. He was just antsy as hell, that

was all. All this waiting around to see what would happen when he
was so used to going out and getting things done was practically
killing him.

When his father came back, would it be with the decision to have

the village stay where it was? Or that the risk was too great and they
would merge with another? Would Will follow them if they all picked
up and left? Or would he take that as his final cue to leave Hawke
forever?

He’d never been this depressed at the thought of any of his former

lovers moving on to better things. That’s what they did. No one
wanted to stay and settle down with him when they had their lives and
their own fights to deal with in their own villages.

Hawke had never really wanted them to do anything else either.

He’d been fine by himself.

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He would be fine knowing that Will was going to be with other

people with magical talents as well. Everyone knew that the mage
district was the one place where the only prejudice anyone had was
against people with no magic.

“Was there something going on between you and that boy?”

Felicia asked.

As was natural in the world, being asked a question like that from

his mother only resulted in his face turning molten hot, and of course,
she knew what that meant.

She smiled. It went right to her eyes for a split second before a

worried suspicion took over her features. “What’s the matter? Is it
because he’s a vampire? The villagers are coming around, and his
healing powers are very helpful.”

“It’s not that,” Hawke said, then had to keep on going when she

gave him a look. “No, really, it’s not.”

In fact, Will had run dry of blood from the blood bags he’d

packed two days ago, but Hawke had gone out hunting. Because of
the size of the village, small as it was, someone was always hunting
for something, or a pig or chicken was being slaughtered, but either
way, that meant that the village had blood to give to its visiting
vampire.

Hawke nearly smiled as he recalled the look on Will’s face when

he handed the man a glass of blood that he’d drained from the rabbits
he’d caught.

Will had taken the glass and sniffed it suspiciously, and just in

case Hawke had offended by bringing him such a small bit of blood
from a rabbit of all things, he’d promised to bring him the blood of a
buck the next time.

Will had barely heard, and he’d put the glass to his mouth and

sipped at the blood as though he were getting ready to sip on soapy
water.

Then his eyes had lit up, and he’d drained the glass and asked if

there was any more.

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107

Apparently, vampires were taught from birth that animal blood

tasted foul and held no nutritional value to them whatsoever.

When Hawke asked him about this, because he’d thought for sure

that Will would have to drink animal blood at some point, considering
the journey he was on, Will only responded that he would have been
prepared to drink it to survive, but he’d doubted he would have
enjoyed it so much.

Ever since then, Will had been constantly hounding the man in

charge of most of the slaughtering on the farm.

“The blood tastes different. I didn’t know there were flavors,”

Hawke had overheard him explaining to another farmhand. Anderson
was formerly from the werewolf district, and his belief was that wild
werewolves were a thousand times worse than any vampire. Because
of this, it seemed the two had become easy friends.

“So you’ve only ever drank human blood before? Nothing else?”

Anderson had asked, and Hawke noted that there was no scorn in his
voice, and he wondered if he should be worried about Anderson’s
friendship.

“No, if I had I’d’ve been drinking pig’s and cow’s blood a long

time ago. The squirrel I didn’t like so much, and Vaughn seems to
think I want to taste one of his dogs now, which I don’t, but I’m glad I
figured this out.”

Hawke had been glad for him, too. He’d quickly vanished, secure

in the knowledge that Will was safe in Anderson’s company, even if
he was suspicious about Anderson’s intentions with him.

Hawke explained all of this to Felicia, leaving out the part where

he was worried that Anderson might be interested in stealing his kind
of former lover.

Felicia listened and nodded, as though he’d said those things to

her anyway. She had a creepy power to always know things like that.
Maybe he should stop bringing her romance novels from the raids he
went on.

“If you like him, you need to tell him before he leaves. It looks

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like he wants to stay. I thought it was because he had nowhere else to
go, but now that you say he had plans to go to the mages it makes me
think he wants to be here for you.”

This was why he should never tell his mother about anything. The

only thing that kept him inside the room was his childish fear that she
would choke on her tea or something when he wasn’t watching her.

But he couldn’t leave. He was trapped here and now that she’d

smelled blood she was going in for the kill by demanding why he
didn’t man up and just do something about the only person she’d ever
seen him show an interest in.

She only started to get into the part of her argument where she

wanted to see him happy and how he should start taking romantic
risks when he put up his hands in defeat.

“I’ll talk to him and find out what he wants. I won’t promise

anything, though. If he still shows even a remote interest in going to
the mage district then that’s where I’m sending him.”

Felicia glared at him, shrugged, and then went back to her book,

as if that was supposed to convince Hawke that she no longer cared
about the subject matter.

She didn’t understand. Not the way he did. Hawke knew what it

was like to be tied down to something and want out. Will had felt that
sort of misery, and just because the walls closing in around him had
been painted prettily didn’t mean that it was any easier to deal with
than what Hawke had to go through.

Forced marriages, forced to drink from humans when he

disagreed, and an entire family who only cared about what his
monetary worth was.

Hawke refused to trap him and take away his choices, even if his

intentions would be good.

* * * *

Will was shocked when Hawke actually approached him. He’d

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109

been leaving the barn, and because it was still clean and he found
something oddly soothing about the scent of clean hay and listening to
the animals, he had stayed there after leaving Hawke’s parents’ house
five days ago.

The villagers didn’t seem to mind that he was in there with the

animals. They encouraged it even. It meant that there was now
someone else available to take care of the stalls and make sure the
animals were fed.

The other farmhands, who also lived in the barns they tended,

remarked that it was a sneaky way to make sure no one ignored their
duties. It was hard to relax and lounge around when the smell of
animal feces was in the air. Because of this, the barn that Will tended
to was always squeaky clean, even if it meant cleaning it ten times a
day.

“Are you okay?” Hawke asked. The man was staring at him with

worry on his face.

“Fine,” Will said, and then cleared his throat because his voice

didn’t come out quite the way he’d wanted it to.

He couldn’t let his mind wander. Getting lost in other thoughts

would be preferable to listening to whatever dismissal Hawke had
come here to give him, but he needed to hear this. He wouldn’t run
away, and he would take whatever the man had to say with dignity.

They hadn’t spoken in days, and Will was pretty sure he’d worn

out his welcome by now, especially because he’d pretty much
finished tending to the wounded in the village. There was no other
reason for him to stay. Hawke knew this.

Hawke actually looked behind him to the barn doors, then he

smiled down at him.

He was so handsome that Will’s breath got caught in his throat.
“I’m surprised you’re still in there, after what happened…”

Hawke trailed off and then did a little throat clearing of his own.

He could have been talking about anything. About how he and

Hawke had made love in there, or the way Will had been harassed by

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some locals and then kidnapped by a vampire assassin.

“It’s actually pretty comfortable,” Will said, thinking of the cot

he’d kept that he and Hawke had made such good use of, as well as
the stall he’d cleaned out and turned into a cozy sleeping area. “And it
isn’t like there’s a whole lot of animals in there either, so I can’t really
be bothered by them.”

They had certainly gotten used to him, and by basically living by

lamplight during the day until one of the other farmhands came in to
let them out for some sunshine.

Those were the moments when the tarp Will had put over his stall

came in real handy.

“Yeah, about the animals,” Hawke said. “How much longer do

you think you’ll be staying? There aren’t many in there, and I know
it’s not like you’re keeping the barn in pitch darkness during the day
or anything, but they could still use more sun than they’re getting.”

Will bit the inside of his cheek and hoped that Hawke didn’t

notice it. Right. He’d known this was coming. The only thing he
could do was make sure it was as painless as possible and go quietly
when he was ready.

“I was saving some of the blood and putting it into the bags that I

brought with me for when I go. They keep it fresh even without
refrigeration,” he explained, not knowing why.

Hawke nodded. “Yeah, I’d guessed that. You just need some

more?”

Will nodded.
“I can help you get it, if you want.”
“Oh, sure, that would be great.” He hated the idea and didn’t want

Hawke to help him leave at all.

“Did you hear anything from your father yet?” Will asked, just

hoping to change the subject and get out of this awkward air that
surrounded them.

“No messenger yet, but he’ll be back in a couple of days anyway.

There’s usually no point in sending messengers for the short trips,” he

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111

explained. “But when he gets back the village will know whether or
not to pack up and go, or stay here.”

“Well, I hope you’ll stay safe wherever you go. Your job is pretty

dangerous.”

Hawke smiled at him, and Will wanted to melt into a puddle at his

feet. Why did he have to be so handsome, and nice, and honorable,
and just everything? If he’d stayed a self-righteous, vampire-hating
prick, then this wouldn’t be nearly as hard as it felt like right now.

“Will, about what happened, between us, five days ago, I mean,”

Hawke started.

“I know what you’re talking about,” Will said quickly, not certain

whether he should be annoyed or not that Hawke felt the need to skirt
around the act while giving so many hints as to what he was talking
about, as if Will might not know what he was getting at unless he
described it as much as possible.

“Right, well.” Hawke actually shifted his feet and almost looked

uncertain, and for a man of his size and skills, that was saying an
awful lot about what was going through his brain. “I’ve been thinking
about what happened, and I wanted you to know that I’m glad we met
again.”

“I’m not giving you one for the road, if that’s what you’re after,”

Will deadpanned, suddenly a whole lot more annoyed with the man
than he had been before.

“What? No! I mean, not that it wouldn’t be nice,” Hawke said,

easing some of the tension in the air with his smile.

Even Will couldn’t help but be charmed. “Right, but, uh, not

going to happen. To be honest it’s going to be hard enough leaving
you behind.”

Will bit his lip and turned away when he said that, cursing under

his breath for being a complete idiot as he tried to go anywhere but
where Hawke West was.

“Wait, Will,” Hawke called, and of course he had to follow him

when Will was still trying to get ahold of his emotions.

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Marcy Jacks

“Please just leave me alone.” Maybe he could leave tonight. The

night was still young, so he had plenty of time to travel as far as he
could and make a camp for him to stop during the day. He already
knew the basics of hunting and could easily catch his own animals to
drink from at this point.

“No!” Hawke reached his hand out and snatched Will’s elbow,

jerking him to a stop. “Do you want to stay?”

Will blinked. “What?”
Hawke clenched his jaw, and Will was struck with the sudden

knowledge that Hawke wasn’t struggling with what he was about to
say because it was awkward being around a former prisoner whom
he’d had sex with, but because he might just have some emotional
stake in this, too.

“Do you want me to stay?” Will asked. He barely dared to hope

for such a thing, but at the same time he couldn’t keep his voice from
sounding small and expectant as he waited for Hawke to give him his
answer.

“I know you want to go and find other mages to live with, and if

that’s where you want to go then I’ll wish you well.”

“That’s not what I asked you, Hawke,” Will said, cutting him off.

“I don’t want to hear any of this circular bullshit. Either you want me
to stay or you want me to go. I would like to stay because I love you.”

Will clenched his fists when he admitted to the feeling that had

been building within him in the short time he’d been in this village. It
was hard, admitting to having emotions as strong as that for a man
who might feel little more than friendship for him, but this needed to
stop. Will was done dancing around this issue and he wanted to know
where Hawke stood.

The man was staring at him stupidly, as though Will had just

admitted he was in love with the cow in the barn.

“You do?”
“Yes, I do,” Will said, feeling his own defensiveness rising up

inside of him. He did love Hawke, and he wasn’t about to let anyone,

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113

not even Hawke himself tell him that he was wrong to do so.

The breathy exhale that Hawke released, coupled with the bright

smile on his face, took away a good chunk of Will’s paranoia in one
fell swoop. He didn’t move as Hawke’s hands quickly reached for
him and brought his mouth forward for a long, wet, completely
unromantic but entirely enthusiastic kiss.

Will was so caught up in the whirlwind of the thing that it took

him a good three seconds before he realized that this was the first time
he and Hawke had ever kissed. He liked it.

“You know this means we’re both a couple of saps, right?”
“Just keep doing that and I won’t care,” Will said, breathless, and

he began tugging Hawke backward to the barn, and his bed.

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Chapter Twelve

Hawke was pleased with the energy that Will used to pull him

backward and to the cot that had been put in a clean stall for him. He
hadn’t been in here since that day when he and Will had first made
love and then Will had been taken, and now that he was back, he was
surprised at how downright cozy it looked.

It was almost nicer than Hawke’s bedroom, but that still wasn’t

saying much. It was definitely warmer in here, and much more
preferable to being dragged off somewhere to have sex outdoors.
Hawke wasn’t really into that. Not in the village he lived in, where, if
he was walked in on, it would be by someone he knew.

“You’ve settled in nice,” Hawke said and then didn’t struggle

when Will pushed him back on the cot and lifted his shirt off over his
head.

“I’m assuming you mean the bed and the nightstand?” Will shook

his head and smiled as he made the cot creak by putting his knee up
onto it and climbing the length of Hawke’s body.

He was hard. Hawke could feel him the instant their hips touched,

and it only served to make Hawke’s blood sizzle as it flowed straight
to his cock.

“You can sweep the floor of a cave and hang some nice pictures

and it will still look homely,” Will said.

Hawke wasn’t entirely sure about that. In fact he rather doubted it.

Most caves were wet and had all kinds of crawling, squeaking life
living inside of them. Maybe he only thought it was so nice in here
because Will was with him.

“Before we do this,” Hawke said, knowing he was about to risk

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115

having the sex he’d wanted so badly since that moment when he’d
rescued Will, and his balls and cock were practically yelling at him to
shut his mouth, but he couldn’t. “I need you to know that if you do
decide to go to the mages, I will follow you.”

Will blinked down at him. “They wouldn’t have you as anything

other than a slave. You have no magic in you.”

“I could be your slave. I trust you won’t abuse that power over

me.” Hawke grinned at the sudden dirty thought that entered his mind.
“Unless I wanted you to.”

Will slapped his arm, but it was an entirely playful gesture that

only made Hawke laugh even more.

“I wouldn’t want to take you away from your family. My plans

were to go to the mages, but plans can change, and if your father
comes back and says the village needs to pack up and go, then I’ll go
with you.”

“I just don’t want you to feel trapped with me,” Hawke said,

voicing the fear that had kept him from this position for the past five
days.

“What? Like my family?” Will raised a brow at him comically,

but Hawke could see it in the man’s gorgeous amber eyes when he
realized that Hawke was being perfectly serious.

“You’re nothing like them. You’re not a slaver and you have a

heart. I want to be with you because I want to. Understand? It has
nothing to do with my loyalties suddenly changing because I need a
master or a head of house to follow. Considering how the hierarchy of
this village was set up, if that was something I wanted I would have
latched myself onto your father.”

Hawke shivered at the image that put into his head. “Please don’t

ever say something like that again,” he said with a groan that made
Will laugh.

“Do you believe me now?”
“Yes, yes I believe you and I was an idiot for doubting you.”
“Good, and now that we’ve both established that, and that we will

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follow each other to the ends of the Earth, I would like to get back to
declaring my love for your body.” As if to prove this, Will thrust his
hips forward a little, and Hawke’s cock, which had softened slightly
in the wake of their serious conversation, perked up again in interest.

He threw his head back and hissed at the pleasure being bestowed

onto him through his jeans. “Yes, please.”

“While we’re together, I won’t try to stop you from running off

into whatever dangerous situation your talents demand of you,” Will
said.

Hawke shook his head, keeping his eyes firmly on Will’s as he

fumbled with the man’s button and zipper of his jeans. “No.”

“And you won’t stop me if I’m required on one of your missions

as a healer?”

That was something that made him want to bite his tongue. The

odds were against them that Will would be required to go on many
missions, but Hawke knew better. A vampire healer would be too
useful to be kept sheltered at home, and because of Will’s eagerness
to use his powers to help others, he did seem like the type of man who
would want to go. He would be needed. Sometimes.

“I promise I won’t tie you to our bed to keep you from coming

with me,” Hawke said, and then reached into Will’s jeans and slid his
cold hand over Will’s hot erection.

It was a tight fit, getting his hand in there, and Will hissed a bit at

the cold, but he surged his hips forward and closed his eyes at the
pleasurable contact. “Good,” he said then gripped Hawke’s shoulders
and thrust gently against the hand that held him.

That wasn’t exactly the main event that they had come in here for,

but it was sexy as all hell to look at, and Hawke found himself
pressing his hand harder against Will’s hips just to keep him moving
like that.

“Holy fuck,” Will gasped. “I can’t believe how I almost left.”
“Me neither,” Hawke said. They’d both come so close to losing

each other, and it would have been no one’s fault but their own for the

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117

stubbornness they both suffered from.

He was suddenly too eager to be inside of the other man. He

wanted to see that look on Will’s face because Hawke had his cock
buried deep inside of him, and not because he was just giving him a
fantastic hand job.

“Lift yourself up a bit. Get your pants off,” Hawke commanded,

pulling his hand away.

That seemed to be all the signal that Will needed to get his mind

in proper working order, because he practically jumped off of the cot
and started pushing down his jeans. He kicked off his shoes and got
his pants down, and then he was finally naked.

It took some effort on his part, but Hawke was able to throw away

his own clothes into a pile in the corner even as he watched Will strip
for him.

“Next time we’ll have to go slower,” Hawke said. “You can make

a nice little show out of that for me.”

Will gave him a calculating look. “Why am I the one dancing

around and stripping in your fantasy? You could be doing that for
me.”

Will immediately bit his lips together, realizing what he’d just

said, and clearly worried that Hawke would take offense to it.

Hawke laughed, reached for him, and then pulled him back down

onto the cot. “We can switch up the roleplaying, sexual servant thing
if you want. I trust you.”

Will breathed a heavy sigh. “I’m glad. I’ll make sure I don’t break

that trust either.”

“Well, can I trust that you’ve kept some oil under the cot for us to

use?”

Will blushed and reached under the cot for the vial of oil. It was

clearly different from the stuff that Hawke had used on him their first
night together, but he was going to wait before asking where the other
man got it from. All he cared was that it would work when he put his
fingers into Will’s asshole.

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Marcy Jacks

Will even seemed a little shocked, like he was waiting for

something else when Hawke coated his fingers and reached around to
brush his fingertips against his pucker.

“You, uh, aren’t going to tie me down this time?”
Hawke pressed a kiss to the man’s chest and then gently bit down

on his hard nipple for good measure. “No, I told you, I trust you. I
know you won’t bite me unless I ask you to.”

That made Will’s eyes fly wide, and Hawke was more and more

proud of himself that he could surprise the man.

“You would let me do that?”
“Well, not today,” Hawke admitted. “We can work up to that.”
Will wouldn’t stop smiling. “You really do trust me, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Hawke said, dipping his fingers a little deeper, until they

popped past the ring of muscle. Using two at first was rushing it, but
so far Will wasn’t telling him to stop. He seemed to be really enjoying
himself. “Do you trust me?”

“Of course I do,” Will said, his eyes so full of lust as he pushed

himself farther down onto Hawke’s fingers it was a wonder he could
see straight.

That was good. Will would need that trust, and so would Hawke,

if this was going to survive. Having a healing vampire as part of the
village was one thing, but for Hawke to take him as a partner was
something else entirely. Then there was the potential backlash they
would get if the village had to merge with another one for safety
reasons, but so long as they both trusted each other and stayed
together, everything would be fine.

“I’m gonna come if you keep doing that,” Will said, even as he

continued to thrust lazily back against Hawke’s fingers.

Hawke wanted to make him do just that, because there was

nothing he wanted to see more right then than the sight of Will’s face
as he completely let go and shot his load with nothing more than
Hawke’s fingers to aid him.

Better things came to those who were patient. “Are you almost

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119

ready?” Hawke asked, adding a third finger and stretching out Will’s
asshole, but now doing his best to stimulate the man as little as
possible.

“Y-yes. I want it. Fuck me,” Will said.
How could Hawke deny him that request?
He removed his fingers, noting the sound of longing that Will let

out when there was nothing inside of him.

“Hurry, Hawke,” Will begged, shifting himself a little farther up

as Hawke grabbed himself and lined up the head of his aching prick
with his hole.

“I think I should warn you that you’re about to have the worst sex

of your life,” Hawke said, groaning as the head of his dick pushed
past the ring of muscle with surprising ease. “I’m not going to last
long.”

“It’s a good thing you teased me almost to death then,” Will said,

then pushed his hips down until Hawke was balls deep inside of him.
By then, Will was gripping his shoulders so tightly that Hawke was
probably going to have finger-shaped bruises in the morning.

“I’ll make it up to you the rest of the night then,” Hawke

promised, and then started shifting his hips, gripping Will’s ass and
thighs to encourage him to do the same.

He did. So, so well, too. Will moved and moaned and kissed with

all the energy of a virgin. It had been a mistake to tie him up the last
time, and it had been a mistake to not kiss him either. Even when
Hawke pushed his tongue into the other man’s mouth, he felt no
danger of sharp teeth that wanted to bite down on him. He tasted like
any other man, only better, because he belonged to Hawke now.

Maybe he was going to have to start reading some of those

romance novels his mother liked so much if this was the result of
being romantic and taking chances with the heart and all that.

Hawke was more concerned with the needs of his cock, at the

moment, however, and was too busy delighting in the moans that Will
let out as well. The sound of his voice, completely lost to pleasure,

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only served to make Hawke’s body crave him even more.

He was glad that Will was on top of him, because that meant

Hawke could use the man’s body weight against him as he adjusted
himself onto his knees and started to pound into him.

There was no way this barn was containing the sounds they were

both making, and Hawke didn’t care. Better if the village found out
about them like this than if Hawke and Will were forced to stand in
front of everyone, hands held awkwardly, explaining that they were
both in love and that Will was going to stay permanently.

“Oh fuck! Oh fuck!” Will said, and then kept right on saying that

another dozen or so times as he held onto Hawke’s shoulders for dear
life.

Hawke reached down between them, only wanting to tease his

lover a little more by stroking him, but the second his fingers touched
the man’s cock, warm semen shot onto his hand as Will’s body
tightened around Hawke’s prick, and that sent him over the edge as
well.

They were both tight and twitchy for a minute or so after that, and

Will had sleepily seemed to decide that Hawke made a good body
pillow, because he was determined not to move off of him.

That was fine. Hawke was good right where he was.
“You told me to prepare for bad sex,” Will said, his eyes shut and

a smile on his face as his cheek was pressed against Hawke’s chest.
“Either you suffer from false modesty, or you’re a liar.”

“Aren’t they both the same thing?” Hawke asked, lifting his hand

and noticing the way Will’s cum looked on his palm.

“I guess they are.” Will turned his head up just as Hawke took an

experimental lick, and he shivered at the sight.

“Don’t do things like that in front of me,” he complained, his eyes

bright with excitement. “You’ll get me going again and I’ll be forced
to ravish you before you’ve even recovered.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Hawke said, enjoying the reaction

he was getting out of his new lover.

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121

“I love you, you know,” Hawke said.
Will smiled at him. “I love you, too.”
“I know, and you said that, but I want you to know that I’ve loved

you ever since we were kids. I don’t want to scare you away or
anything, and I guess I thought I forgot about it until just now, but
that’s what it was. You fed me and you healed me, and I never forgot
you for it. I thought I hated you for being a vampire, and maybe I did
a little, considering your family, but I―”

Will kissed him before he could keep talking and embarrass

himself even more. “I love you, too. I wish I could say I felt the same
then, but I didn’t know, but I feel the same now and I love you. I’ll
follow you wherever you go, no matter what.”

Hawke reached down and entwined their fingers together. Will

loved him, and he would follow him. On the dangerous missions
when a healer was required, or into other human villages, where the
danger to vampires was just as great.

Hawke didn’t say it, because he’d already told Will that he would

go with him into the mage district if that was where he wanted to go,
but he mentally confirmed the promise to himself and added another
one.

He was going to protect Will from any and all threats that came

their way. He would never leave his side, and God willing, they
would both be made happy by it, even with this stupid war that was
building between the vampires and the humans.

“No matter what,” Hawke said, and he pulled Will toward him for

another kiss.

THE END

WWW.MARCYJACKS.COM

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marcy Jacks lives and works in Ontario, Canada, where she is

fervently pursuing the writer’s life while writing about lots of
gorgeous guys. She loves hearing from readers and you can reach her
at authormarcyjacks@gmail.com.

For all titles by Marcy Jacks, please visit

www.bookstrand.com/marcy-jacks

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

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